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HISTORICAL ACCOUNT, 



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INCORPORATED SOCIETY 



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FOK TEE 






A PROPA&ATION OF THE GOSPEL 



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IN 



FOREIGN PARTS. 



OONTAINniQ THEm 






Foundation, Proceedings, and the Success of their Missionaries 
' IN the British Colonies, tq the year J 728, ' 



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By DAVID HUMPHREYS, D.D., 

SECBETART TO TBE HONOBABLB SOOIETT. 



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LONDON: 

printed by JOSEPH DOWNING, 
Id Bartholomew-Close, near West Smitbfield, 



MOCCXXX. 



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NEW YORK: 
STANFORD A SWORDS. 

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The Preface. 



THE PREFACE. 



The design of the following Treatise, is to inform the public of the 
transactions of the Society for Propagating the Gospel ; their establish- 
ment, labors and success. This account is compiled from papers, trans- 
mitted to the Society, by governors of colonies, or persons of note 
abroad ; or from congregations of people, and the missionaries in the 
plantations. These are commonly referred to, or cited in the body of 
the Treatise, and the original papers may be still seen, being now in 
the Society's custody ; nor doth there appear any reason to question 
their veracity, and sufficient exactness in all material points. Some 
short accounts of the Society's proceedings, have been annually printed ; 
but as these could give ^e reader but a very imperfect idea of the 
whole progress in this work, it hath been now thought convenient to 
give a general view of the Society's labors ; because so great and so re- 
ligious a design, seemed only to want its being better understood, in 
order to its being more encouraged. 

The end proposed is of the highest importance ; the propagation of 
the Christian faith, and the salvation of men's souls. And the serious 
reader must be much affected with the endeavors of the Society, to- 
wards planting religion and virtue, and the due ordering the life and 
manners of a numerous people spread over exceeding large countries ; 
especially when it is remembered, that the principles implanted in the 
present people will influence future generations ; and though the present 
age is greatly indebted to this Society, their posterity will be exceed- 
ingly more so. 

It is hoped the reader, upon perusing the following papers, will find 
cause to be much pleased with the unexpected success of so great a 
work. Especially ^ it is considered, that this Society hath no public 
income or revenue. This good work was at first supported by the 
voluntary subscriptions of the members of the Society, and hath been 
ever since carried on by their contributions, and the casual donations of 
many other worthy persons. The support of this design must, there- 
fore, be ascribed wholly to that good Pl-ovidence, which hath influenced 
such religious and honorable persons to become unforeseen patrons, and 
many of them (through their concealment of their names) unknown 
benefactors to this Charity. 

The same good Providence hath brought down upon it the peculiar 
favor of our princes. Queen Maiy, by her bounty, gave the chief oo- 
canon to the rise of this Society, King William established it, Queen 
Anne encouraged it, and his late Majesty, King Georee, supported it ; 
for when the S(Dciety's fund was almost exhausted, an numble represen- 
tation of this matter, from the Society, was laid before his late Majesty, 
of happy memory, by his Grace the present Archbishop of Canterbury, 



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The Preface. 



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the most worthy pi^ident of this Society ; and his Majesty was gra- 
ciously pleased to grant his royal letters for a public collection, to enable 
the Society to carry on so pious a work. The Society have still in- 
creasing views of success in their labors, through the favor and protec- 
tion of his Majesty, now happily reigning, from his known zeal for the 
Protestant religion, and royal care for the colonies, so considerable a 
branch of the British monarchy. 

It is necessary to remark here, that no notice is taken in the follow- 
ing account of the late (General Codrington's noble bequest to the So- 
ciety, of two plantations in the island of Barbadoes, producing a very 
considerable yearly income ; because that estate is not applicable to the 
general uses of the Society, such as the supporting of missionaries, cate- 
chists and school-masters ; but is appropriated to particular uses, men- 
tioned in the late Oeneral Codrington's will. The only intent of the 
following Treatise is to acquaint the public with the Society's endeav- 
ors towards settling religion in the colonies on the Continent of 
America. Whereas in the management of the plantations bequeathed 
by General Codrington, they act only as trustees ; they have already 
made a considerabte progress in the design directed by the General's 
will, and hope in due time to complete it ; and it may then be proper 
to give the public a particular account of it 



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The Charter. 



THE CHARTER. 

William the Third, by the grace of GckI, of England, Scotland, 
France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c., to all Christian 
people to whom these presents shall come, greeting. 

I. Whereas we are credibly informed, that in nmny of our planta- 
tions, colonies and factories beyond the seas, belonging to our kingdom 
of England, the provision for ministers is very mean, and many others 
of oiu* said plantations, colonies and factories, are wholly destitute and 
improvided of a maintenance for ministers and the public worship of 
God ; and for lack of support and maintenance for such, many of our 
loving subjects do want the administration of God's Word and sacra- 
ments, and seem to be abandoned to atheism and infidelity ; and also 
for want of learned and orthodox ministers to instruct our said loving 
subjects in the principles of true rehgion, divers Romish priests and Jes- 
uits are the more encouraged to pervert and draw over our said loving 
subjects to popish superstition and idolatry. 

II. And, whereas, we think it our duty, as much as in us lies, to pro- 
mote the glory of God by the instruction of our people in the Christian 
religion ; and that it will be highly conducive for accomplishing those 
ends, that a sufficient maintenance be provided for an orthodox clergy 
to live amongst them, and that such other provision be made as may 
be necessary tor the propagation of the Gospel in those parts. 

III. And, whereas, we have been well assured, that if we would be 
graciously pleased to erect and settle a Corporation for the receiving, 
managing and disposing of the charity of our lo\ing subjects, divers 
pei-sons would be induced to extend their charity to the uses and pur- 
poses aforesaid. 

IV. Know ye, therefore, that we have, for the considerations aforesaid, 
and for the better and more orderly carrying on the said charitable pur- 
poses, of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, willed, 
ordained, constituted and appointed, and by these presents, for us, our heirs 
and successors, do will, ordain, constitute, tleclare and grant, that the most 
Reverend Fathers in God, Thomas, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
John, Lord -Archbishop of York ; the Right Reverend Fathers in God, 
Henry, Lord Bishop of London, William, Lord Bishop of Worcester, our 
Lord Almoner, Simon, Lord Bishop of Ely, Thomas, Lord Bishop of 
Rochester, Dean of Westminster ; and the Lords Archbishops of Can- 
terbury and York, the Bishops of London and Ely, the Lord Almoner 
and Dean of Westminister for the time being ; Edward, Lord Bishop 
of Gloucester, John, Lord Bishop of Chichester, Nicholas, Lord Bishop 
of Chester, Richard, Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, Humphrey, Lord 
Bishop of Bangor, John Montague, Doctor of Divinity, Clerk of our 
Closet, William Sherlock, Doctor of Divinity, Dean of St Paul's, Wil- 
liam Stanley, Doctor of Dimity, Arch-Deacon of London, and the Clerk 






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T}ie Charter, j, 6 

J of the Closet, of us, our heirs and successors ; the Dean of St. PaulV and 
Arch-Deacon of London for the time being ; the two Regius and two 
Margaret Professors of Divinity of both our Universities, for the time 
being ; Thomas, Earl of Thanet, Thomas, Lord Viscount Weymouth, 
Francis, Lord Guilford, William, Lord Digby, Sir Thomas Cookes, of 
Bently, Sir Richard Bulkley, Sir John Philipps, and Sir Arthur Owen, 
Baronets ; Sir Humphrey Mackworth, Sir William Prichard, Sir Wil- 
liam Russell, Sir Edmund Turner, Sir William Hustler, Sir John Char- 
din, and Sir Richard Blackmore, Knights ; John Hook, Esq., Serjeant 
at Law, George Hooper, Doctor of Divinity, Dean of Canterbury, Geo. 
Booth, Doctor of Divinity, Arch-Deacon of Durham, Sir Geo. Wheeler, 
Probendary of Durham, William Beveridge, Doctor of Divinity, Arch- 
Deacon of Colchester, Sir William Dawes, Baronet, Thomas Manning- 
ham, Edward Gee, Thomas Lynford, Nathaniel Resbury, Oii'spring 
]Jlackhall, George Stanhope, William Hayley, and Richard Willis, 
Doctors of Divinity, and our Chaplains in Ordinary ; John Mapletoft, 
Zacheus Isham, John Davis, William Lancaster, Humphrey Hodey, 
Richard Lucas, John Evans, Thomas Bray, John Gascarth, White 
Kennett, Lilly Butler, Josiah Woodward, Doctors in Divinity ; Gideon 
Harvey, and Frederick Slare, Doctors of Physic ; Rowland Cotton, 
Thomas Fervois, Maynard Colchester, James Vernon, Jr., Joseph Neal, 
i * Grey Nevil, Thomas Clerk, Peter King, Rock, John Comins, Wil- 
liam Melmoth, Thomas Bromfield, John Reynolds, Dutton Seaman, 
Whitlock Bulstrode, Samuel Brewster, John Chamberlain, Richard 
King and Daniel Nicholl, Esqrs. ; Benjamin Lawdell, John Trimmer, 
Charles Toriano and John Hodges, Merchants ; William Fleetwood, 
William Whitfield and Samuel Bradford, Masters of Arts, and our 
Chaplains in Ordinary ; Thomas Little, Batchelor in Divinity ; Thomas 
^ Staino, Henry Altham, William Lloyd, Henry Shute, Thomas Frank, 
and William Mecken, Clerks, and their successors ; to be elected in 
manner as hereafter directed, be, and shall for ever hereafter be, and by 
virtue of these presents, shall be one body politic and corpora* . j.a 
deed, and in naihe, by the name of The Society for the Propagation / 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts ; and them and their successors by the 
same name, we do, by these presents, tor us, our heirs and successors, 
really and fully make, ordain, constitute and declare one body politic 
and corporate in deed and in name. 

V. And that by the same name, they and their successors shall and 
may have perpetual succession. 

VL And that they and their successors, by that name, shall and may, 
for ever hereafter, be persons able and capable in the law to purchase, 
have, take, receive, and enjoy to them and their successors, manors, 
messuages, lands, tenements, rents, advowsons, liberties, privileges, juris- 
. dictions, franchises, and other hereditaments whatsoever, of whatsoever 
nature, kind and quality they be, in fee and in perpetuity, not exceed- 
ing the yearly value of two thousand pounds, beyond reprisals ; and 
also estates for lives and for years, and all other manner of goods, chat- 
> . tels, and things whatsoever of what name, nature, quality, or value, 



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The Charter. 



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soever they be, for the better support and maintenance of an orthodox 
clergy in roreign parts, and other the uses aforesaid ; and to give, g^-ant, 
let and demise the said manors, messuages, lands, tenements, heredita- 
ments, goods, chattels, and things whatsoever aforesaid, by lease or 
leases, for term of years, in possession at the time of granting thereof, 
and not in reversion, not exceeding the term of one and thirty years, 
from the time of granting thereof; on which, in case no fine bie taken, 
shall be reserved the full value ; and in case a fine be taken, shall be 
reserved at least a moiety of the full value, that the same shall reason- 
ably and bona fide be worth at the time of such demise. 

VlL And that by the name aforesaid, they shall, and may be able 
to plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, defend and 
be defended, in all courts and places whatsoever, and before whatsoever 
judges, justices, or other officers, of us, our heirs and successors, in all 
and singular actions, plaints, pleas, matters and demands, of what kind, 
nature or quality soever they be ; and to act and do all other matters 
and things, in as ample manner and form as any other our liege sub- 
jects of this our realm of England, being persons able and capable in 
the law, or any other body corporate or politic within this our realm of 
England, can, or may have, purchase, receive, possess, take, enjoy, grant, 
set, let, demise, plead and be impleaded, answer, and be answered unto, 
defend and be defended, do, permit, and execute. 

Vni. And that the said Society for ever hereafter, shall and may 
have a conmion seal, to serve for the causes and business of them and 
their successors ; and that it shall and may be lawful for them and 
their successors to change, break, alter, and make new the said seal from 
time to time, and at their pleasure, as they shall think best. 

IX. And for the better execution of me purposes aforesaid, we do 
give and grant to the said Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts, and their successors, that they and their successors 
for ever, shall, upon the third Friday in February yearly, meet at some 
convenient place, to be appointed by the said Society, or the major part 
of them, who shall be present at any general meeting, between the hours 
of eight and twelve in the morning ; and that they, or the major part 
of such of them that shall then be present, shall choose one President, 
one or more Vice-President or Vice-Presidents, one or more Treasurer 
or Treasurers, two or more Auditors, one Secretary, and such other 
officers, ministers and servants, as shall be thought convenient to serve 
in the said offices for the year ensuing ; and that the said President, and 
Vice-Presidents, and all officers, then elected, shall, before they act in 
their respective offices, take an oath, to be to them administered by 
the President, or in his absence, by one of the Vice-Presidents of the 
year preceding, who are hereby authorized to administer the same, for 
the faithful and due execution of their respective offices and places dur- 
ing the said year. 

X. And our further will and pleasure is, that the first President of 
the said Society, shall be Thomais, by Divine Providence, Lord Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, Primate and Metropolitan of all England ; and that 







The Charter. f 

the said President shall, yrithin thirty days after the passing of this 
Charter, cause suinmona to be issued to the several memoers of the said 
Society herein particularly mentioned, to meet at such time and place 
as he shall appoint ; and that they, or the major part of such of them 
as shall then he present, shall proceed to the election of one or more Vice- 
President or Vice-Presidents, one or more Treasurer or Treasurers, two 
or more Auditors, one Secretary, and such other officers, ministers, and 
servants, as to them shall seem meet ; which said officers, from the 
time of their election into their respective offices, shall continue therein 
until the third Friday in February, which shall be in the year of our 
Lord, one thousand seven hundred and one, and from thenceforwarda 
until others shall be chosen into their places in manner aforesaid. 

XI. And that if it should happen, that any of the persons at any time 
chosen into any of the said offices shall die, or on any account be re- 
moved from such office at ony time between the said yearly days of 
election, that in such case it shall be lawful for the surviving and con- 
tinuing President, or any one of the Vice-Presidents, to issue summons 
to the several members of the body corporate, to meet at the usual place 
of the annual meeting of the said Society, at such time as shall be spe- 
cified in the said summons ; and that such members of the said body 
corporate who shall meet upon such summons, or the major part of 
them, shall and may choose an officer or officers into the room or place 
of such person or persons, so dead or removed, as to them shall seem 
meet 

XII. And we do further grant unto the said Society for the Propa- 
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and their successors, that they 
and their successors shall and may, on the third Friday in every month 
yearly, for ever hereafter, an-l oftener, if occasion requires, meet at some 
convenient place to be appointed for that purpose, to transact the busi- 
ness of the said Society ; and shall and may at any meeting on such 
third Friday in the month, elect such persons to be members of the said 
corporation, as they or the major part of them then present, shall think 
beneficial to the charitable designs of the said corporation. 

XIII. And our will and pleasure is, that no act done in any assem- 
bly of the said Society, shall be effectual and valid, unless the President, 
or some one of the Vice-Presidents, and seven other members of the 
said company, at the least, be present, and the major part of them con- 
senting thereunto. 

XIV. And we further will, and by these presents for us, our heirs 
and successors, do ordain and grant unto the said Society for the Prop- 
agation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and their successors, that they 
or their successors, or the major part of them who shall be present at 
the first and second meeting of the said Society, or at any meeting on 
the third Friday in the months of November, February, May and Au- 
gust, yearly for ever, and at no other meetings of the said Society, shall, 
and may consult, determine, constitute, ordain, and make any consti- 
tutions, laws, ordinances and statutes whatsover ; as also to execute 
leases for years as aforesaid, which to them, or the major part of them 



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The Charter. 



then present, shall seem reasonable, profitable, or requisite, for touching;; 
or concerning the good estate, rule, order, and govoniinent of the said 
corporation, and the more effectual promoting the stiid charitable de- 
sign ; all which laws, ordinances and constitutions, so to bo made, 
ordained and established, as aforesaid, we will, command and ordain 
by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, to bo from time to 
time, and at all times hereafter, kept and performed in all things, as the 
same ought to be, on the penalties and amerciaments in tho same to be 
imposed and limited, so as the same laws, constitutions, ordinances, 
penalties, and amerciaments, be reasonable and not repugnant, or con- 
trary to the laws and statutes of this our realm of England. 

aV. And we do likewise grant unto tlie said Society for the Prop- 
agation of the Oospel in Foreign Parts, and their successors, that they 
and their successors, or the major part of such of them as shall be pres- 
ent at any meeting of the said Society, shall have power from time to 
time, and at all times hereafter, to depute such persons as they shall 
think fit to take subscriptions, and to gather and collect such monies as 
shall be by any person or persons contributed for the purposes aforesaid. 

XVI. And shall and may remove and displace such deputies as often 
as they shall see cause so to do, and to cause public notification to be 
made of this Charter, and the powers thereby granted, in such manner 
as they shall think most conducible to the furtherance of tho said 
charity. 

XVII. And our further will and pleasure is, that tho said Society 
shall yearly and every year, give an account in writing to our Lord 
Chancellor, or Lord Keeper of the great seal of England, for the time being, 
the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and the Lord Chief Justice 
of the Common Pleas, or any two of them, of the several sum or sums 
of money by them received and laid out by virtue of these presents, or 
any authority hereby given, and of the management and disposition of 
the revenues and charities aforesaid. 

And lastly, our pleasure is, that these our letters patents, or the in- 
rollment thereof, shall be good, firm, valid, and efiectual in the law, ac- 
cording to our royal intentions herein before declared. In witness 
whereof, we have caused these our letters to be made patents. Witness 
ourself^ at Westminster, the sixteenth day of June, in the thirteenth 
year of our reign. 

Per Breve de Privato Sigillo, 

COCKS. 



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AN 



HISTORICAL ACCOUNT 



or TBS 



INCORPORATED SOCIETY, &c. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Oceaaiona of the First Rise of this Society. , 

The British Colonies upon the Continent of America, were all settled 
first by private adventurers, under grants from the Crown, with small 
numbers of families. It was, tlierefore, not to be expected tliat the proper 
provision, either in the religious or civil concerns of the inhabitants, could 
De at first made. Indeed if a colony had been planted immediately by 
the State here, it is not to be questioned but proper care had been taken 
that both should have been duly regulated. But as the first private 
adventurers labored under great difiiculties at their settling, and under 
many uncertainties, what the event would be ; this, though not a suffi- 
dent reason, may yet be an excuse, for their not making the proper 
provision in this case. A trial was first to be made, of what advantage 
these settlements would prove, either to the adventurers, or nation, be- 
fore either would engage themselves in farther expense. 

Another misfortune which greatly hindered any uniform and public 
worship of Ood being settled, was this : the natives of this kingdom of 
Great Britain, who removed thither, were of many kinds of denomina- 
tions ; most of them dissenting from the Church of England, and dis- 
agreeing as much from each other, in their sentiments of religion and 
Church government, as from their mother nation and Church. Besides, a 
further difSculty arose soon, from the confiux of people of several nations of 
Europe, of various sects and divisions settling in these plantations, which 
occasioned a still greater diversity of opinions. It is, therefore, not to 
be wondered, that the people were not earnest to settle any establish- 
ment when so few agreed upon any particular form. 

But in a small process of time, when these settlements were fixed, 
and the colonies established, beyond the fear of any ordinary force, 
which might destroy them ; they began not only to see, but very 
sensibly to feel their wants. Indeed the first planters, those of the 
British nation especially, as coming from a country blessed with the 
purest religion and truest liberty, retained some remembrance of both, 
and lived through the force of that, in those wild parts, among savages 
and woods, in human civility and decency, though I cannot say ia 



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Humphrey's History of 



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I 



Christian order ; but their children (the generation after them) >vho had 
not themselves seen what their fathers had, were but weakly affected 
with what they might hear from their parents, of tlie primitive Christian 
worship, and the ordinances of the Gospel. Some whole colonies hved 
without celebrating any public worship of Almighty God, without the 
use of the sacraments, without teachers of any kind, and, in a literal 
sense of the phrase, without God in the world. 

2. In this dark state of things, iho Providence of God raised up sev- 
eral eminent persons, who, observing this great calamity, became zeal- 
ous to redress it ; strove to awaken the people into a sense of their 
wants, and contributed their assistance towards recovering their country- 
men from this irreligion and darkness. Among the first we find the 
honorable Sir Leolyne Jenkins, in his last will and testament, proved 
the 9th of November, 1685, thus declares, that it was "too obvious that 
the persons in Holy Orders, employed in his Majesty's fleets at sea, and 
foreign plantations were too few for the charge and cure of souls arising 
in those fleets and plantations ; and, therefore, he provides, that two 
additional fellowships be new founded, and endowed at his cost and 
charges, in Jesus College, Oxford, on condition that the said two fellows, 
and their successors for ever, may be under an indispensable obligation 
to take upon them Holy Orde;s of priesthood, and afterwards that they 

■ go out to sea, in any of his Majesty's fleets, when they or any of them 
\ are thereto summoned, by the Lord High Admiral of England, and in 
;^- case there be no use of their service .at sea, to be called by the Lord 
*|| > Bishop of London, to go out into any of his Majesty's foreign planta- 
"/' tions, there to take upon them the cure of souls, and exercise their min- 
' . isterial function, reserving to them their full salaries, with the farther 
\ encouragement of twenty pounds a year a piece, while they are actually 
in either of the services aforesaid." Tliis was truly a very Avise and 
good act ; but the reader will presently reflect, that two persons, though 
wholly employed in the plantations, could not take a proper care of a 
very small part of a people dispersed over so great a Continent. How- 
ever, this worthy person gave a noble testimony of the piety and ne- 
cessity of this wort, and his example hatli no doubt excited the zeal of 
many others, to advance and carry on so Christian an imdertaking. 

3. The next great patron and promoter of this design, was the honor- 
able Robert Boyle, Esq., not more distinguished for his noble extraction 
than eminent piety, and universal learning ; he had been appoint- 
ed by King Charles the Second, the first Governor of a company 
incorporated by his Majesty, in the year 1661, For the Propagation of 
the Gospel amongst the Heathen Natives of Neio England, and the Parts 
adjacent in America. But this design was too narrow, as confined to 
the conversion of the heathen natives of New England, and the parts 
adjacent, and could by no means answer the wants of all the foreign 
plantations, and all tlie heathen nations adjacent. However, this gave 
that excellent person an occasion to see the design in general, was un- 
questionably pious, charitable, and necessary ; and agreeably hereto, he 
did, by a codicil to lus last will, settle an annual salary, for some learn- 



The Propagation Society, ^-c. 



11 



ed dinne or preaching minister for ever, to preach eight sermons in the 
year, for proving the Christian religion against notorious infidels ; and 
doth require tliat the said preachers shall be assisting to all companies, 
and encouraging them in any undertaking for Propagating the Christ- 
ian Religion in Foreign Parts. This recommendation of the design to 
Posterity, was a still nobler legacy, being such surely, as cannot fail to 
procure it many more, from those who shall be endued with the same 
Christian spirit, that noble person was. 

4. Some few years after these honorable gentlemen had given their 
testimony to the piety of this design, it received the greater sanction of 
royal favor from their late Majesties King Charles the Second, King 
WiUiam and Queen Mary. About the year 1679, the Bishop of Lon- 
don, (Dr. Compton,) upon an application to him from several of the in- 
habitants of Boston, in New England, petitioning that a Church should 
be allowed in that town, for the exercise of religion according to the 
Church of England ; made a representation of this matter to his Ma- 
jesty King Charles the Second, and a Church was allowed to be erected ; 
and farther, in favor of this people, his late Majesty King William, was 
pleased to settle an annual bounty of one hundred pounds a year upon 
that Church, which is still continued. The Rev. Mr. Harris is now sup- 
ported in it, as the Minister's assistant, by this allowance, with the ad- 
dition of Sir Leoline Jenkins's fellowship in Jesus College in Oxford. 

5. But this petition of many of the inhabitants of Boston, for a Church 
of England Minister about the year 1679, was attended presently with 
greater consequences. This, and the questioning of the Charter of the 
country which happened about that time, together with some other 
matters relating to the Colony, occasioned the religious state of those 
countries to be more strictly considered ; very soon after. Bishop Comp- 
ton made enquiry how the foreign plantations were provided wim 
clergymen, and found, upon search, that there were not above four 
ministers of the Chvircli of England in that vast ti'act of North America, 
and only one or two of them regularly sent over. To remedy this sad 
defect, the 13i8hop made proposals to several of those places to supply them 
with clergymen ; and had generally encouragement to do so. Tlxe Bishop, 
farther to promote this good beginning, obtained of his Majesty, King 
Charles the Second, a boiuity of twenty pounds to each minister or school- 
master, for his passage to the West Indies ; and instructions were given 
to the governors of the provinces, to permit none authoritatively to 
serve any cure of souls, or to teach school, but such as were licen^ '\ by 
the Bishop of London. And as a farther gi-eater favor it was ordered, 
that from that time every minister should be one of the vestry of his 
respective parish. This provision for a regular clergy, licensed by the 
Bishop of London, did considerably forward the good work ; the peo- 
ple generally built Churches in all the Leeward Islands, and in Jamaica, 
that is, in those settlements which were rich and able to make provision 
for the support of their ministers ; but this good eflfect did not extend 
to the poorer plantations upon the Continent, several of which remained 
in an utter state of ignorance, and broke into various divisions of all 
sects and deuominatiuns. 






t, 






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Humphrey's History of 



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♦■1 



6. To remedy tliis calamity another most signal instance of royal 
£fivor was shown to the plantations, by their Majesties King William 
and Queen Mary ; a very noble design was laid, of erecting and en- 
dowing a College in Virginia, at Williamsburg, the capital of that coun- 
try, for professors and students in Academical arts and sciences, for a 
continual seminary of learning and rehgion ; a stately fabric was in- 
tended and partly raised for that purpose, a royal Charter was eiven^ 
with ample immunities and privileges, and a public fund was allotted 
for the endowment of it, and a President appomted with an honorable 
salary, and the College, in honor of the founders, called William and 
Mary College. But soon after about half the intended pile was raised, 
before it was furnished with professors and students, or advanced itself 
above a grammar school, all that was built of the College was unfortu- 
nately destroyed by fire. Her late Majesty Queen Mary, of pious 
memoir, showed so hearty a zeal and affection in promoting this work, it 
would be great negligence or ingratitude in a writer not to remark what a 
Bishop of our Church justly observes upon this occasion. " Her Majesty 
took particular methods to be well informed of the state of our plantations ; 
and of those colonies that we have among the infidels. But it was no 
small grief to her to hear that they were but too generally a reproach 
to the religion by which they were named, I do not say which they 
professed, for many of them seem scarce to profess it, she gave a willing 
ear to a proposition that was made for erecting schools, and the found- 
ing of a college among them. She considered the whole scheme of it, 
and the endowment which was desired for it. It was a noble one, and 
was to rise out of some branches of the revenue, which made it liable to 
objections. But she took care to consider the whole thing so well, that 
she herself answered all objections, and espoused the matter with so af- 
fectionate a concern, that she prepared it for the king to settle it at his 
coming over ; she knew how heartily he concurred in all designs of that 
nature ; nor indeed could any thing inflame her more than the pros- 
pect of setting religion forward, especially where there were hopes of 
working upon infidels." 

1. This act of Royal favor made Bishop Compton exert all his power 
to promote the work, and, therefore, for the more orderly settling all 
Church affairs in Virginia, he appointed the Rev. Mr. James Blair his 
Commissary there ; and soon after appointed the Rev. Dr. Bray his 
Commissary in Maryland. Upon this occasion. Queen Mary again ex- 
tended her royal bounty, and gave £200 a year during her life, to sup- 
port missionaries. Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne, of Denmark, 
contributed liberally, several of the nobility, and many otliers of the 
clergy and gentry, did make such generous contributions towards carry- 
ing on this work, that several missionaries were sent and supported in 
the colonies. Dr. Bray, especially, was enabled to do many public ser- 
vices in Maryland, to settle and procure a support for several new min- 
isters, to fix and furnish some parochial libraries, and to provide school- 
masters, very much to the advancement of religion in those parts ; the 
particulars of which need not be repeated here, since the B«v. Doctor 



' ' 



.1 



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The Propagation Society, ^. 



IS 



hath himself given the public a very fair and satisfactory account of his 
proceedings. 

8. While thus this good work was just kept alive by a few private 
persons, an incident happened which occasioned a Charter to be ob- 
tained, and the rise of this Society. Dr. Stanley, Archdeacon of Lon- 
don, now Dean of St Asaph, who had been one of those who contributed, 
and usually stirred up others to promote this design, happening to re- 
commend this charity to a late great Prelate's lady, as deserving her 
bounty for its support, he was told by the Bishop, that though his in- 
tentions were very commendable, and the work worthy all encourage- 
ment, yet the methods he used to carry it on, were not in law strictly 
justifiable, but that it was necessary to have a Charter to render the 
management of this charity safe and secure. The Doctor saw presently, 
upon reflecting, the objection was very just, but this diflSculty did not 
make him cease from any further endeavors. He was very hearty in 
promoting this work, and therefore resolved to make application where 
he had hopes to get the difficulty removed. He acquainted Archbishop 
Tenison and Bishop Compton with the objection which had been 
started, upon which the Archbishop moved to think so Christian a work 
should be stopped, replied, with more than usual earnestness, then we 
must have a Charter ; and soon after, he did so effectually represent 
the religious wants of the plantations to his Majesty, that a Royal 
Charter was granted, and this Society erected. 

This truly was an action suitable to Archbishop Tenison's public 
spirit and honest zeal for the Protestant religion, and exceedingly be- 
coming his high station and authority in the Church. The American 
colonies sure, can never without the greatest veneration and gratitude 
remember him, when they shall many ages hereafter, feel the happy 
effects of having the Christian religion planted among them, and reflect, 
how hearty and forward Archbishop Tenison appeared, to obtain that 
Charter which gave life and authority to so glorious an undertaking ; 
nay, that his zeal and spirit did not rest here ; he continued to promote 
and guide by his wise counsels, the aftairs of the Society ; he paid them 
an annual bounty of fifty pounds during his life, and at his death be- 
queathed them a thousand pounds towards the maintenance of the first 
Bishop that should be settled in America. 

9. A Charter being thus obtained, the next endeavor was to carry 
their worthy designs into execution. Accordingly his Grace the Arch- 
bishop, as empowered by the Charter, caused summons to be issued for 
the members of the Corporation, to meet within the time limited ; and 
several met at the place appointed, on the 27th of Juno, 1700, and 
chose proper officers for transacting their business. At following ineot- 
higs they made divers rules and ordere for their more regular proceed- 
ing in the administration of their trust, and subscribed among them- 
selves near two hundred pounds, for defraying the charges of passing 
the Charter, making the common seal, and other necessary expenses. 
They also ordered five hundred copies of the Charter to be printed forth- 
with, and distributed among the membere, to be showed by them to all 



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'I 



proper persons, the farther to notify the design they were engaged in, 
and to invite more persons of ability and piety to assist in carrying it on. 

This step was but an opening of the matter to the public ; the So- 
ciety were diligent to consider of farther and more effectual ways and 
means, to obtain subscriptions and contributions, sufficient to enable 
them to bear the expense of sending many missionaries abroad. They 
immediately agreed that the best argument to mankind was example, 
and the most effectual means to engage others to contribute, was to lead 
the way themselves, by subscribing towards the support of the work. 
Accordingly, Archbishop Tenison, the President, the Vice-Presidents, all 
the Bishops and members then present, did subscribe a yearly sum to 
be paid to the Treasurer of the Society, for the public uses, according 
to a form of subscription drawn up for that purpose. Having now 
made this advance themselves, they gave out deputations under 
their common seal, to several of their members, and other persons of 
figure and interest in the counties of England and Wales, signifying 
their being constituted and appointed by the corporation to take sub- 
scriptions, and to receive all sums of money, which should be subscribed 
or advanced for the -purposes mentioned in the Charter. And here it 
is to be gratefully acknowledged, that several worthy persons did, with a 
public spirit, take these deputations, to help on with a work so truly 
for the national interest, and the honor of common Christianity ; and did 
by their example and instances, so influence several well disposed persons, 
that considerable remittances of benefactions to the corooration were soon 
made, which enabled them to enter on the work with success. 

10. Particularly from the gentlemen and clergy of Lincolnshire, through 
the hands of the Rev. Mr. Adamson, Rector of Burton Cogles, and Mr. 
Evans, Rector of Ussingham ; from the clergy of the Diocese of York, 
by the countenance of the Archbishop, and l^e care of his Chaplain, the 
Rev. Dr. Deering ; from the clergy and others in Northamptonshire, by 
the hands of the Rev. Dr. Reynolds, (now Lord Bishop of Lincoln,) Chan- 
cellor of the Diocese of Peterborough ; from several Divines in Suffolk, 
transmitted to the Rev. Mr. Shute ; from the gentry and clergy in 
Shropshire, returned by the Rev. Mr. Wroe, Warden of Manchester 
College ; from a Society of Clergy in Devonshire ; and especially from the 
gentry and others in or near Exeter, transmitted by the Rev. Mr. Richard 
King, which Avorthy gentleman, together with several of his friends, 
hath been a constant benefactor to this Society from its first rise, and 
hath upon many occasions very much promoted its interest. The So- 
ciety received also several sums of money remitted by Sir Edmund 
Turner, and from other persons deputed by the Society in Caermarthen- 
shire and Pembrokeshire, remitted by Sir John Philips, of Picton Castle 
in Pembrokeshire, Baronet, who had not only zealously promoted the 
design of this corporation, of which he was a member appointed by 
Charter, but also very much assisted several other religious societies, 
whereby the honor and interests of religion might be advanced, and 
the public good promoted. 

Nor were there only such persons of piety aud honor who appeared 



c;i!*-^ 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



15 



openly in carrying on this great work, but even at first, and ever since, 
there have been several benefactors, who, with a too modest conceal- 
ment of their names, have made great benefactions to the Society. I 
shall remark only through whose hands, and probably by whose influ- 
ence, several benefactions just at the rise of the Society came. The 
chief of these were reported and paid to the corporation by Dr. Beve- 
ridge, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Burnet, Bishop of Sarum, 
Dr. Sharpe, Archbishop of York, Dr. Wake, now Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, and President of this Society ; by the Rev. Mr. Gibson, now Bishop 
of London, the Rev. Mr. Waddington, now Bishop of Chichester, the 
Hon. Colonel Colchester, Sir WiUiara Drake, Sir Thomas Trollop, Sir 
Edward Seeward, Mr. Meux, Mr. Torriano, the Rev. Mr. Stubs, now 
Archdeacon of St. Albans, the Rev. Mr. Shute, Mr. Brewster, Mr. 
Arthington, Mr. Hanky, Mr. Broughton. But the greatest benefaction 
soon after the establishment of the Society, was in the year 1702. Dr. 
Mapletoft reported to the Board, that a person who desired to be un- 
known, had sent him a present of one thousand pounds, and desired it 
might be laid out in land or rent charges, or otherwise for the use of 
the Society and their successors for ever, the name of the honored per- 
son being, by strict command, concealed till after the demise : Dr. 
Mapletoft then declared it, and his declaration is thus entered upon the 
Society's books, February 1, 1*705, "Whereas the sum of one thou- 
sand pounds was sent as a benefaction to this Society, from an unknown 
person, by the hands of the Kov. Dr. John Mapletoft, the said Dr. 
Mapletoft doth now inform the Society, that the said unknown person 
is lately deceased ; and that therefore he is now at liberty to impart 
her name and quality, which were before concealed by her own com- 
mand ; she was dame Jane Holman, the relict of Sir John Holman, of 
Weston in Northamptonshire, a lady of great humility, piety, and 
charity ;" this donation, with an addition of near £300, was laid out 
by the Society, in purchase of land in Essex, now in the Society's pos- 
session. 



CHAPTER n. 

Enquiries made into the Religious State of the Colonies. The partic- 
ular State of each Colony described. 

The Society thought they had now made a promising entrance into 
the discharge of the trust committed to them, and from the zeal of 
their members, and other corresponding gentlemen, had hopes of gain- 
ing a fund sufficient to make a first step in so great a work. They 
were acquainted with the general condition of the colonies with regard 
to religious affairs, but thought this knowledge not sufficient to proceed 
upon : they made enquiries of all proper persons, merchants, and others 



^ 



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M 



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16 



Humphrey's History of 



hero, and wrote to governors, congregations of people, and other per- 
sons of distinction in the plantations, tor a more particnlar account of 
the state of religion in the American Colonies ; that by such a distinct 
information, they might more suitably apply their help where it was 
most wanted and most desired. 

And they received indeed from *hence a more melancholy account 
than any their fears could suggest, sevt^rsl relr.tions setting forth, that 
the very Indian darkness wjis not more gloomy and horrid, than that 
in which some of the English inhabitants of the colonies lived. Such 
as did truly verify this observation in the Charter : " Some colonies and 
plantations wholly destitute and unprovided of a maintenance for min- 
isters, and the public worship of God, and for lack of such support 
and maintenance, many of the subjects of this realm want the admin- 
istration of God's Word and sacraments, and seem to be abandoned to 
Atheism and Infidelity ; and also for want of learned and orthmlox 
ministers to instruct them in the principles of true religion, divers 
Romish priests and Jesuits are more encouraged to pervert and draw 
them over to popish superstition and idolftry." These words cftho 
Charter do truly exhibit the reason, and set forth the necessity of the 
establishment of this Society; because as to the first remark, that 
" great numbers of the inhabitants were abandoned to atheism and 
intidelity," this will appear too plain from numerous instances in the 
following papers. How indeed could it be otherwise in those rudo 
countries, and in these latter times, when it cannot with any degree of 
modesty be denied, but that a prevailing spirit of deism hath appeared, 
even here at home, setting at naught all revelation, treating every re- 
ligion as alike imposture and fraud, and all the teachers of them as 
equally deceivers of mankind. And with regard to the other partic- 
ular mentioned in the charter, that Jesuits might more easily seduce 
the people to popish superstition and idolatry, this is very evident ; for, 
inasmuch as the people, through the want of clergj', were abandoned 
to atheism and infidelity, it is an easy step from atheism into popery ; 
because whosoever hath no inward sense nor persuasion of the truth 
of any revelation, is open to take upon him the outward profession 
of popery at any time, as various interests and inclinations may 
sway him. 

The Society, upon their first engaging in this work, presently per- 
ceived it consisted of three great branches, the care and instruction 
of our own people, settled in the colonies ; the conversion of the In- 
dian savages, and the conversion of the negroes. The English plant- 
ers had the title to their first care, as brethren and countrymen, as 
having been once Christians, at least their parents. Besides, it would 
be ineffectual to begin with an attempt to convert the Indians and ne- 
groes, and to let our own people continue in their gross ignorance, or 
supine negligence of all the duties of Christianity : for both the former 
sorts of men, would necessarily take their first impressions concerning 
Christianity, from the English ; and when they found them pay so 
little obedience to tlie laws of the Gospel, must either neglect it as an 
unprofitable labor, or hate it as a heavy imposition. 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



Vt 



[>ther por- 

accouiit of 

a distinct 

ero it was 

ly account 
forth, that 
than that 
eJ. Such 
)lonios and 
CO for min- 
uh support 
the adinin- 
andoned to 
I orthoilox 
^on, divers 
t and draw 
ords c f tho 
ssity of tho 
mark, that 
theism and 
mces in the 
those rude 
ly degree of 
ih appeared, 
ig every re- 
of them as 
ther partic- 
asily seduce 
vident; for, 
1 abandoned 
ito popery ; 
)f the truth 
\ profession 
ations may 

resently per- 
instruction 
n of tho In- 
iglish plant- 
itrymen, as 
es, it -would 
ians and ne- 
rnorance, or 
1 the former 
concerning 
hem pay so 
lect it as an 



2. The Society began therefore with the English, and soon found 
there was more to be done among them, than they had as yet, any 
views of effecting. The reader shall here have a small sketch of tho 
state and condition of each colony, formed from accounts, the governors 
and persons of the best note, sent over to the corporation : for surely, 
the mere relation of the state of these countries, must raise a very 
affecting reflection in a person of a serious spirit ; when lie observes 
such great numbers of people in the colonies, living without any min- 
istration of the Gospel in many places. If he should only consider 
them as now, in their present condition ; the people very numerous, 
the countries exceeding large, the climates healthy, the soils very rich, 
the rivers large and navigable hundreds of miles up into the main land, 
the harbors many, capacious, and safe : these are great natural advan- 
tages, and capable of vast improvements by industry. But if the 
reader should carry on his thoughts farther, and consider them as a 
thriving people, colonics which may grow up into powerful nations, and 
that from these small beginnings what a mighty English empire may 
one day flourish in those parts, can it seem an indiflerent thing, a small 
matter, to any true believer, whether so great people (for such they 
may one day be) should be Christians or not ? 

3. I shall therefore give a summary view of tlie particular state of 
each colony, when the Society engaged in this work, beginning with 
the most southern colony on the continent : this is South Can)lina, ex- 
tending in length on the sea coast, three hundred miles ; and into the 
main land near two hundred miles. It was granted by patent from tho 
crown, in the year 1663, and settled soon after, containing in the year 
1701, above seven thousand persons, besides negroes and Indians, and 
was divided into several parishes and towns. Yet though peopled at 
its first settlement with the natives of these kingdoms, there was, until 
the year 1701, no minister of the Church of England resident in this 
colony ; though great numbers of the inhabitants were very desirous 
of having ministers of the Church of England ; and with very few 
teachers of any other kind ; neither had they any schools for the edu- 
cation of their children. 

The next colony. North Carolina, extending on the sea-coast above 
one hundred miles, and into the land about one hundred, was divided 
into several townships, and peopled from England. It contained above 
five thousand inhabitants, besides negroes and Indians, in the year 
1701, all living without any form of divine worship publicly performed, 
and without schools for the education of their children in the elements 
of learning and principles of religion. 

In the year 1703, Mr. Henderson Walker, a gentleman of that 
country, describes the state of it thus to tho Bishop of London : We 
have been settled near these fifty years in this place, and I may justly 
say, most part of twenty-one years on my own knowledge, without any 
minister of the Church of England, and before that time, according to 
all that appears to me, much worse ; George Fox, some years ago, 

3 



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18 



Humphrey's History of 



came into these parts, and by a strange infatuation did infuse bis 
Quaker principles into some small number of people. 

Nay, in tlie year 1712, Mr. Gale, a gentleman of figure in that 
country, wrote to England to his father, tlint since he had been an in- 
habitant of that country, which was abi^ut eight years, religion contin- 
ued in a very low ebb, and the little stock the settlers had carried over 
with them, was in danger of being totally lost, without speedy care of 
sending ministers. The country had been ever since it was settled by 
the English, without a minister residing, and all the children under 
eighteen years of age, (from the time the last minister was there,) con- 
tinued unbaptized, many of which hatl been cut off in a massacre com- 
mitted by the Tuscarow Indians. This account was by that gentle- 
man & father here delivered to the Archbishop of York, (Dr. Sharpe.) 

4. The next colony, Virginia, the most ancient of all in America, 
was in a much better condition ; this had not only the advantage of 
being planted first, but also of being settletl by a corporation or com- 
pany of noblemen and merchants in London, who acted with a more 
public spirit and purse, than the few proprietaries and adventurers in 
the other plantations could : the first settlei-s here were for the most 
part members of the Church of England, and as soon as the colony 
■was established beyond the fear of conunon calamities, they began to 
provide for their souls as Christians, as well as to take care of their 
temporal concerns as merchants; ac«ortlingly in the year 1712, the 
whole country was laid out into forty-iune parishes or townships, and 
an act of assembly made, fixing a salary upon the minister of each 
parish. A church was built of timber, brick, or stone in each parish, 
and many other chapels of ease, all decently adorned for the celebra- 
tion of public divine service. For some years at first, they wanted a 
great many ministers for vacant places ; but have, since Dr. Bray's 
being appointed Commissary there, had church matters put in a more 
orderly method. A regular clergy, with the advantages of some paro- 
chial libraries, hath been established, and many schools have been erect- 
ed for the education of their children. The Society therefore did main- 
tain no ministers in Virginia, as thinking the people able to make a 
sufficient provision for their support themselves, though they have on 
some occasions made gratuities to clergymen there. 

The next colony, Maryland, a spacious country, and like Virginia, 
perhaps the best watered of any in the world, abt^unds with Numerous 
commodious harbors. The first settlement made here, was in the year 
1633, consisting of about two hundred English, the chief of which 
were gentlemen of good families. By the good conduct of the first 
governors, the colony grew up and flourished soon, and religion now is 
pretty well established among them. Churches are built, and there is 
an annual stipend allowed each minister by a peqjetual law ; which is 
more or less according to the number of taxables in each parish, and is 
levied by the sheriff among other pubhc revenues : yet notwithstand- 
ing these advantages, nowhere else to be tbund in the English Amer- 
ica, except Virginia, they wanted several more clergj-men for their 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



10 



id infuse his 

Dfiire in that 
I been an in- 
itjion contin- 
l carried over 
peody care of 
ras settled by 
lildren under 
.8 there,) con- 
iiitssacre com- 
T that gentlo- 
!)r. Sharpe.) 
I in America, 
advantage of 
tttion or com- 
with a more 
idventurers in 
for the most 
s the colony 
;hey began to 
care of their 
tar 1712, the 
>\vnships, and 
iiister of each 
1 each parish, 
• the celebra- 
ley wanted a 
se Dr. Bray's 
tut in a more 
)f some paro- 
ve been erect- 
bre did main- 
le to make a 
they have on 

like Virginia, 

ith Numerous 

IS in the year 

nef of which 

t of tlie first 

■ligion now is 

and there is 

iw ; which is 

>arish, and is 

lotwithstand- 

glish Amer- 

en for their 



parishes ; but since the beginning of the late Governor Nicholson's 
time, the face of affairs is much mended, and the churches are now 
crowded with peraons duly attending divine service, the number of 
Papists, who went over there, hath decreased, Quakerism hath lost 
gt^. .nd, and true religion made considerable advances. The Society 
have sent no missionaries hither, though this colony required a larger 
number of clergymen ; because there hath hitherto been a loud and 
urgent call for all their fund could give, by the following colonies, 
which were, until supplied by the Society, entirely destitute of a 
minister. 

5. Pennsylvania is the first of these, a large country, extending above 
one hundred and twenty miles in length, and in some parts of a great 
breadth ; settled first by some Dutch and Swedes ; the Dutch planta- 
tion fixed on the freshes of the river Delaware. The Fins of some in- 
liabitants of Finland, composed the Swedish colony ; the Swedes ap- 
plied themselves to husbanilry, the Dutch to trade, the latter grew soon 
too powerful for the former ; and though the King of Sweden appoint- 
ed tbrmerly a governor here to protect his subjects, yet in the year 
1655, the Swedish Governor, John Kizeing, made a formal surrender of 
the country to the Dutch Governor. But the English fieet, in the year 
1664, having obliged New Amsterdam, now called New York, to sur- 
render, and the English also making themselves masters of the adjoin- 
ing plantations on the continent, both parties in this country, the Dutch 
and Swedes, peaceably submitted to tlie English. Mr. Penn, the pro- 
prietary, who had the grant of this country, called it from his own 
name Pennsylvania. There were but tew English in this colony, be- 
fore this gentleman carried over a considerable body of adventurers, 
about two thousand pei-sons, all Quakers, who were more readily dis- 
posed to venture with him, as being reputed the head of that sect of 
people in England. 

This spacious country was thus settled by people of several nations, 
and of various opinions in religion ; the Dutch were Calvinists, the 
Swedes, Lutherans, the main body of the English, Quakers : but a few 
years after the Quakere settled here, pei-sons of several other persua- 
sions in religion came over, and some membei-s of the Church of Eng- 
i„_j -pj^g Quakers also divided anaong themselves, on account of 



land. 



some different sentiments in religion, and set up separate meetings. 
The other inhabitants followed each what Avas good in his own eyes. 
The public worship of God was generally neglected, and the whole 
people lived without the instituted means of grace and salvation; 
though a great body of men, amounting now to near ten thousand 
persons, settled in several commodious towns for trade and husbandry. 
But they have since approved themselves a worthy and industrious 
people, and have of late years, since the Church of England worship 
hath been set up among them, by voluntary contributions, built several 
churches, erected schools, reformed their lives and manners, and made 
considerable unprovements in trade, husbandry, and industry of all 
kinds. 



io 



Humphrey's History of 






M^^^ 



% 



6. The next colony is New York Government, formerly called Nova 
Belgia, or New Netherlands, because first settled by the Dutch ; the 
soil is said to be exceeding fruitful, and the climate the most healthy 
of all the British America. The first bounds of this country, when 
possessed by the Dutch, were Maryland on the south, the main land as 
tar as it could be discovered westward, the great river Canada, north- 
ward, and New England, eastward. The E^t and West Jerseys were 
afterwards taken out of it, and given to under proprietaries, by the 
Duke of York, who had the grant of the whole. The Jerseys were 
first settled by Swedes and some Dutch, afterwards by English inhab- 
itants ; however, aa New York and the Jerseys are now under one 
Governor, the reader may consider them as one country, extending 
near four hundred miles in length, on the sea coast, and in breadth one 
liundred and twontv. A very spacious country, enriched with two 
noblo streams, the itudson and Dehiware rivers, running several hun- 
dred miles, and navigable up above one hundred into the main land, 
by ships of great burtlien, and both falling into the sea with commodi- 
ous harbors. I must not omit mentioning here. Long Island, a consid- 
erable branch of this government. It is situate opposite to the New 
York coast, an Island above one hundred miles long, and about twelve 
broad, settled first by the Dutch, and afterwards by some English from 
New England, now a populous country, exceedingly fruitful, having on 
the east part ten English towns, who were computed to have above 
eight hundred families in the year 1701, and on the west part, nine 
Dutch towns, reckoned to contain above five hundred families. The 
people Avere of various sects and denominations, chiefly Independents 
and Quakers, who had removed from New England, together with many 
others not professing any sort of religion. 

The whole body of this government. Long Island, Staten Island, 
the counties on the continent, and botli the Jerseys, had no public wor- 
ship duly settled ; a great variety of sentiments and schemes in re- 
ligion obtained everywhere, and the Dutch who remained there under 
the English government, lived in the most orderly and Christian man- 
ner : I shall give a description of the religious state of this country, in 
the words of an excellent person. Colonel Heathcote, a gentleman who 
had a considerable fortune there. He wrote thus to the Society in 1704. 
" Being favored with this opportunity, I cannot omit giving you the 
state of this country, in relation to the Church, and shall begin the 
history thereof, from the time I first came among them, which was 
about twelve years ago. I found it the most rude and heathenish 
country I ever saw in my whole life, which called themselves Chris- 
tians, there being not so much as the least marks or footsteps of reli- 
gion of any sort Sundays were only times set apart by them for all 
manner of vain sports and lewd diversions, and they were grown to 
such a degree of rudeness that it was intolerable. I having then the 
command of the militia, sent an order to all the Captains, requiring 
them to call their men under arms, and to acquaint them, that m case 
they would not in every town agree among themselves to appoint read- 



The Propagation Society, ^. 



31 



•ly called Nova 
he Dutch ; the 
) most healthy 
country, when 
e main land as 
Janada, north- 
9t Jerseys were 
etaries, by the 

Jerseys were 
English inhab- 
ow under one 
try, extending 
in breadth one 
hed with two 
y several hun- 
the main land, 
ivith commodi- 
land, a consid- 
te to the New 
1 about twelve 
i English from 
;ful, having on 
;o have above 
est part, nine 
families. The 

Independents 
ler with many 

Staten Island, 
10 public wor- 
zhemes in re- 
sd there under 
Christian man- 
lis country, in 
mtleman who 
iciety in 1704. 
iving you the 
all begin the 
1, which was 
id heathenish 
iselves Chris- 
Bteps of reli- 
7 them for all 
sre grown to 
ing then the 
ins, requiring 
1, that in case 
appoint read- 



ers, and to pass the Sabbath in the best manner they could, till such 
times as they could be better provided ; that the Captains should every 
Sunday call their companies under arms, and spend the day in exercise ; 
whereupon it was unanimously agreed on tnrough the country, to 
make choice of readers ; which they accordingly did, and continued in 
those methods for some time." This description given by that worthy 

Eerson, who proved afterwards highly instrumental in settling religion, 
oth here and in the neighboring countries, was confirmed by many 
accounts from other hands. 

The reader will, in the sequel of this piece, have the pleasure to see 
the face of things in this colony exceedingly changed for the better ; and 
that since the Society have sent missionaries hither, the inhabitants 
have thrown off all their former rudeness, and become a religious, 
sober, and polite people, and as traders to Now York assure us, re- 
semble the English very much, in their open behavior, and frank sin- 
cerity of spirit. 

1. The next colony is New England, almost deserving that noble 
name, so mightily hath it increased, and, from a small settlement at 
first, is now become a very populous and flourishing government. 
The capital city, Boston, is a place of great trade and wealth, and by 
much the largest of any in the English Empire in America, and not 
exceeded but by few cities, perhaps two or three, in all the American 
world. It is foreign to the purpose of this treatise to describe its ancient 
division into four great districts or governments ; the whole country, 
New England, extends above four hundred miles on the sea-coast, and 
near two hundred miles into the main land westward in some places. 
This colony was first settled in the year 1620, by Protestant dissenters 
of many denominations, but chiefly Independents, Brownists, and Pres- 
byterians. They did at their first settling contend with, and by their 
great constancy, at last surmount exceeding difficulties ; and have 
through their industiy raised a plentiful and delightful country out of 
a barren and waste wilderness : it ought to be owned to the just honor 
of this people, that the first settlers who left their native country, Eng- 
land, appear to have done it, out of a true principle of conscience, 
however erroneous. As soon as they had fixed the civil magistracy, 
they did establish a public worship of God ; and suitable to this pru- 
dent as well as religious procedure, the colony throve apace, and hath 
now far outstripped all the others. But when the Independents found 
themselves fixed in power, they began to exact a rigid conformity to 
their manner of worship. Men of all persuasions but their own, were 
styled opprobriously sectaries, and though they had declared at first 
for moderation, and a general liberty of conscience, they, notwithstand- 
ing, banished and drove out of the country, the Quakers, the Antino- 
mian and Familistical parties. However, there are many circumstances 
which alleviate and soften some particulars, which might seem rigorous 
in their administration. New England was at the beginning harrassed 
with various sectaries, who under the umbrage of liberty of conscience, 
took a great licentiousness in all religious and civil matters. I shall 



^* 






23 



Humphrey's History of 



;, ( 



, 



mention a few of the chief, from their own historianii : •" The Anti- 
noraiuns, who deny tlio mural law of (>od to Ite the rule of Christ to 
walk by in the obedience of fuith. The Familiata, who reject the sure 
written Word of God, and teach men to depend upon new and rare 
revelations for the knowledge of God's electing love towards them. 
The Conformitants or FormaliHtA, who bring in a form of worship of 
their own, and join it with the worship God hath appointed in his 
Word. The Seekers, who deny all manner of worship and all the 
ordinances of Jesus Christ, aftirming them to be quite lost, and not 
to be attained till new apostles come ; besides these, there were Arrians, 
Arminians, Quakers ;" with these New England swarmed, and their 
own best writers give us a very melancholy account of their enthusi- 
astic behaviour. 

But the most impudent scctarists, a sect heard of in no other part 
of the world, were thef Gortonists, so named from their vile ringleader, 
one Gorton, who set up to live -in a more brutal manner than the wild 
Indian savages ; in defiance and contempt of any means for instructing 
themselves in the knowledge of God, and without any civil government 
to restrain them in common humanity and decency. This blasphemous 
fellow had his followers, and was with difficulty suppressed by the civil 
power, in Governor Dudly's time, in the year 1643. Yet though the 
civil magistrate could stop the progress of this iniquity, so far as to pre- 
vent its being an allowed and tolerated faction or party ; yet still, down 
to this day, there hath continued a succession of people, who have not 
been ashamed to own and maintain his impious tenets, commonly 
called now Gortonian principles. 

8. After these sectaries had rose and fallen, another sort of people 
appeared, professing themselves members of the Church of England. 
These too were looked upon as sectaries, with what degree of modesty 
or truth the reader must judge. It is true indeed, at the settling of the 
country, as hath been before observed. Independents were the first 
planters, who removed from England, from what they thought perse- 
cution ; but since that time, great numbers of people, members of the 
Church of England, have at different times settled there, who thought 
themselves surely entitled, by the very New England Charter, to a lib- 
erty of conscience, in the worshiping of God after their own way. 
Yet the Independents (it seems) were not of this sentiment, but acted 
as an establishment. The members of the Church of England met 
with obstructions in setting up that form of worship, and therefore a 
great number of the inhabitants of Boston, got an humble petition to 
be laid before His Majesty, King Charles the Second, by Dr. Compton, 
then Bishop of London ; praying that they might be allowed to build 
a church at Boston, and to perform divine worship according to the 
Church of Encfland. This petition was granted, a church was soon 
after built, and frequented by a numerous congregation; upon this 

* HiBtory of New England, printed 1664, p. 24. 
t Vid. ib. p. 186. 



Vt 



The Propagation SoeUty, 4^. 



ocdhsion, the members of the Church of England in ivumy other towns 
in New England, declared their desire of the like advantage of wor> 
shiping G(h1 after that way, wrotv' very ze«l«»a# letters to Bishop 
Compton for miniaters ; and now it a]«p«arcd they wer« M very consid- 
erable IkkIv of people. 

9. Newfoundland is the next and most northern colony of the Eng- 
lish, lying between forty-six and fifty-three degrees of northern latitude ; 
it is a large island, as big as Ireland. The first settlement wns made 
here in the year 1610. The Englioh frequent this island chiefly for the 
cod fishery on the sand banks, not for the improvement of the soil of the 
country, which is said to be worth little ; and therefore they have not 
built any towns, but made only settlements, which they chose to call 
harbors. However, there is one place which may deserve the name of 
a town, namely, St. John's, situate commodiously within the neck of 
an harbor. The houses were built on the northern shore, and every 
family had a sort of wharf to dry his fish on. There was a handsome 
church built here, l>efore the French, in 1705, burnt this town and Uie 
church. After the English had again drove out the French, they built 
another small church and houses for themselves round the fort, for their 
greater security. Though the constant inhabitants in this place are but 
few, yet in fishing seasons great number of English repair tliither for 
catching cod ; some years there have been five hundred sail of ships 
laden with cod. There are computed to be here about five or six settle- 
ments, containing in all, about five hundred families constantly residing 
on the island. The people are poor, and unable to support a minister, 
and at the time this corporation was established, had none : therefore 
that the whole island, all the settlers, and many thousands of occasional 
inhabitants, might not be destitute of having the public worship of God 
celebrated, the Society sent the Rev. Mr. Jackson thither, allowed him 
an annual salary for several years and made him other gratuities. 

10. This is the description of the religious state of the colonies. I 
shall contract the whole into a short view, as the Honorable Governor 
Dudley, Colonel Morris, and Colonel Heathcote, have represented it in 
their memorials. "In South Carolina there were computed seven 
thousand souls, besides negroes and Indians, living without any minis- 
ter of the Church of England, and but few dissenting teachers of any 
kind, above half the people living regardless of any religion. In North 
Carolina, above five thousand souls without any minister, any religious 
adminisb'ations used ; no public worship celebrated, neither the children 
baptized, nor the dead buried in anjr Christian form. Virginia con- 
tained above forty thousand souls, divided into forty parishes, but want- 
ing near half the number of clergymen requisite. Maryland contained 
above twenty-five thousand, divided into twenty-six parishes, but want- 
ing also near half the number of ministers requisite. In Pennsylvania 
(says Colonel Heathcote) there are at least twenty thousand souls, of 
which, not above seven hundred frequent the Church, and there are not 
more than two hundred and fifty communicants. The two Jerseys 
contain about fifteen thousand, of which, not above six hundred fire- 



34 



Humphrey's History of 



quent the Church, nor have they more than two hundred and fifty com- 
municants. In New York Government we have thirty thousand souls 
at least, of which about one thousand two hundred frequent the Church, 
and we have about four hundred and fifty comnumicants. In Connect- 
icut colony in New England, there are about thirty thousand souls, of 
which, when they have a minister among them, about one hundred 
and fifty frequent the Church, and there are thirty-five communicants. 
In Rhode Island and Nnrragansett, which is one government, there are 
about ten thousand souls, of which, about one hundred and fifty fre- 
quent the Church, and there are thirty communicants. In Boston and 
Piscataway Government, there are about eighty thousand souls, of 
which, about six hundred frequent the Church, and one hundred and 
twenty the sacrament. In Newfoundland, there are about five hun- 
dred families constantly living in the place, and many thousands of 
occasional inhabitants, and no sort of public Christian worship used. 
This is the true though melancholy state of our Church in North Amer- 
ica ; and whoever sends any other accounts more ux her favor, are cer- 
tainly under mistakes ; nor can I take them (if they do it knowingly) to 
be friends to the Church ; for if the distemper be not rightly known 
and understood, proper remedies can never be applied." 



f''*. 



yr 






^* 



^, 



HI 



CHAPTER m. 



Tlie People in the Colonies very desirous of Ministers of the Church 
of England, ^quests from C(mgregati(ms of people in each Colony. 

The Governors of several Colonies, and other gentlemen of character 
abroad, and merchants here in London, having given such a particular 
description of the religious state of the plantations, the Society found 
it was high time to enter upon the good work. They were pleased to 
see, that as the people were plainly in great want of a Christian min- 
istry, so they showed also a very earnest desire of being assisted with 
such. For after it was known publicly in the plantations, that this So- 
ciety was erected, and that they intended to send ministers to such 
S laces as should desire them ; especially, after the Rev. Mr. Keith and 
Ir. Talbot, who had been sent traveling preachera through all the 
Colonies of the Continent, had finished their mission ; the people seem- 
ed to awake from the lethargy they had so long laid under, great num- 
bers of the inhabitants, of various humors and different tenets in re- 
ligion, began to contend with great zeal which should be firet supplied 
with ministers of the Church of England, and wrote very earnest letters 
to the Society. This was a strife very agreeable to the Society, and 
now they promised themselves their labor should not be in vain, nor 
their honorable benefactors charity, like water spilt upon the ground. 
They thought any further delay now would be inexcusable, after the 
people had pressed so earnestly for their assistance. 






"«i 



>' 



*, 



«'■ >•-• 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



25 



Indeed, the Society through the whole management of the trust, have 
been so far from acting with an over busy zeal of obtruding the Church 
of England worship upon any sort of people abroad, that they have al- 
ways this unpleasing reflection ; that they have not been able to give 
any assistance to great numbers of people, who liave, in very moving 
tenns, with a true Christian spirit, requested it ; and whom they knew 
to stand very much in want of it. There remained upon their books 
entries of numerous petitions from congregations of sober and well-disposed 
people praying for ministers, which, to tlieir own great discomfort, they 
have been forced to pass by, on account of the smallness of their fund ; 
and not one instance of a minister settled in any place, where many of 
the inhabitants did not earnestly desire it, and to the utmost of their 
power contribute towards his support. That the public may be fully 
acquainted with this disposition in the colonies, it will be proper here 
to give the reader the people's request to the Society in their own words ; 
to let the people speak for themselves, that the world may judge, whether 
this Christian work was not as necessary, as surely it is pious. 

The memorials and petitions of the governors and congregations of 
people shall be laid down next, in the same order the state of the col- 
onies was described, beginning with South Carolina, the more Southern 
colony. 

2. Tlie first memorial from South Carolina, was from the Governor 
and Council of Carolina, dated at the Council-board, at Cliarlestown, 
signed by the Governor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, and the members of 
the Council in 1*702. It runs thus : — " We could not omit this oppor- 
tunity of testifying the grateful sense Ave have of your most noble and 
Christian charity to our poor infant Church in this province, expressed 
by the generous encouragement you have been pleased to give to those 
who are now coming missionaries, the account of which we have just 
now received by the worthy missionary, and our deserving friend and 
minister, Mr. Thomas, who, to our great satisfaction, is now arrived. 
The extraordinary hurry we are in, occasioned by the late invasion, at- 
tempted by the French and Spaniards, from whom God hath miracu- 
lously delivered us, hath prevented our receiving a particular account 
from Mr. Thomas of your bounty ; and also hath not given us leisure 
to view your missionaiy's instructions, either in regard of what relates 
to them or to ourselves ; but we shall take speedy care to give them 
all due encouragement, and the venerable Society the utmost satisfac- 
tion. There is nothing so dear to us as our holy religion, and the in- 
terest of the Established Church, in which we have (we bless God) been 
happily educated ; we therefore devoutly adore God's Providence for 
bringing, and heartily thank your Society for encouraging so many mis- 
sionaries to come among us. We promise your honorable Society, it 
shall be our daily care and study, to encourage their pious labors, to 
protect their persons, to revere their authority, to improve by their min- 
isterial instructions, and as soon as possible, to enlarge their annual 
salaries. When we have placed your missionaries in their several 
parishes according to your directions, and receive from them an account 



4 



■.'^■ 



(ftV. 









Ar^ 



^1 



t*>.i 



t «. 



•d^ 







*i 



-iV 



26 



Humphrey's History of 



1 ,-* ■ 



of yoxa noble benefaction of books for each parish, we shall then write 
more particular and full. In the meantime, we beg of your honorable 
Society to accept of our hearty gratitude, and to be assured of our sin- 
cere endeavor, to concur with them in their most noble design of prop- 
agating Christ's holy religion." Mr. Thomas was obliged upon neces- 
sary afi'airs to come to England in 1705, and soon after returned to 
Carolina. The Society received another letter from the Governor and 
Council, dated December, 1706, acqntiinting them with the Rev. Mr. 
Thomas' death, and desiring more missionaries might be sent. Their 
words are these : " Mr. Samuel Thomas, whom we designed for Charles- 
town, we were so unhappy as to lose, for he died in some few days after 
his arrival. His death hath been a very great loss to this province, he 
being a person of great piety and virtue, and by his exemplary life, diligent 
preaching, and obliging carriage, had the good will of all men. He 
not only brought over several of the dissenters, but also prevailed upon 
several who professed themselves members of the Church of England, 
to lead religious lives, and to become constant communicants, and other 
considerable services he did for the Church. We shall now have occasion 
for four more ministers in the country, besides one for Charlestown ; so 
we do most humbly request your honorable Society, to send four more 
ministers for the country, and upon your recommendation we shall have 
them fixed in the several parishes there." 

These letters are suflScient to shoAv the sense of the country concerning 
receiving clergymen of the Church of England, upon the first sending 
a missionary. I must here, once for all, remark to the reader, that up- 
on the death of a missionary, the same earnest desire for a successor 
hath been always continued. 

3. The next government. North Carolina, was later settled, had been 
harassed with intestine feuds and divisions, and almost destroyed by an 
Indian war; the Society at first sent hither only one missionary, the Rev. 
Mr. Adams, and he was soon obliged, on account of several distressing 
circumstances, to return to England. Colonel Glover, tlien Governor 
of the country, the Church-wardens, and vestry of Coratuck, of Pasco- 
tank, and Chowan Precincts, where he had chiefly employed his labors, 
wrote to the Society upon his departure, in the year 1710, and did, 
with great earnestness, represent their want of ministers. I shall give 
the reader here only one letter, from the Church-wardens and Vestry 
of Coratuck, because the othei-s are much of the same strain, conceived, 
indeed, in very plain, but strong and affecting terras. "We, the 
Church-wardens and Vestry-men, as representatives, and at the request 
of the precinct and parish of Coratuck, North Carolina, do desire to 
offer our grateful acknowledgments in the most humble and hearty 
manner, to the Most Rev. Father in God, Thomas, Lord Archbishop of 
Canterbury, President, and the rest of the members of The Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Farts, for their pious care in 
sending the Rev. Mr. Adams among us, who hath, during his abode 
here, behaved himself in all respects as a minister of Christ, exemplary 
in his life, and blameless in his conversation ; and now, being bound 



TJie Propagation Society, 4^. 



'27 



shall then write 
' your honorable 
mred of our sin- 
I design of prop- 
ged upon neces- 
fter returned to 
le Governor and 
ith the Rev. Mr. 
be sent. Their 
;ned for Charles- 
le few days after 
this province, he 
)lary life, diligent 
of all men. He 
a prevailed upon 
urch of England, 
icants, and other 
ow have occasion 
Charlesto\vn ; so 
a send four more 
on we shall have 

untry concerning 
the first sending 
b reader, that up- 
:e for a successor 

ettled, had been 
destroyed by an 
sionaiy, the Rev. 
Bveral distressing 
tlien Governor 
ratuck, of Pasco- 
oyed his labors, 
1710, and did, 
I shall give 
ens and Vestry 
itrain, conceived, 
ras. "We, the 
id at the request 
na, do desire to 
able and hearty 
d Archbishop of 
The Society for 
leir pious care in 
uring his abode 
hrist, exemplary 
ow, being bound 



^i-s, 



m 

3 



'M 



for England, we, with sorrowful hearts, and true love and affection, take 
our leave of him. We shall ever bless that Providence which placed 
him af.iong us, and should be very unjust to his character, if we did not 
give him the testimony of a pious and painful pastor ; whose sweetness 
of temper, diligence in his calling, and soundness of doctrine, hath so 
much conduced to promote the great end of his mission, that we hope 
the good seed God hath enabled him to sow, will bear fruit upwards. 
This hath in some measure appeared already, for though the Sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper was never, before his arrival, administered in this 
precinct, yet wo have had more Communicants than most of our neigh- 
boring parishes of Virginia, who have had the advantage of a setUed 
ministry for many years. We have no more to add, but beg the hon- 
orable Society will be pleased to continue us still under their charitable 
care, for Avhatever our merits be, our necessities are great, and all 
the return we can make, is to praise God for raising up so many truly 
good friends to our souls ; and that Heaven may prosper you in so 
pious and charitable a design, shall be the subject of our prayers." 

Virginia and Maryland are the next Colonies, botli which were di- 
vided into parishes, and had a regular and licensed clergy with salaries 
settled on them by acts of Assembly ; yet neither of these colonies had 
much above half the proper number of ministers for their Churches. 
However, by their officiating in two or more places by turns, the public 
worship of God was decently supported, and the ministerial offices duly 
performed ; for which reason, the Society did not send any missionaries 
to these Colonies. 

4. The large adjoining Colony, Pennsylvania, was in a very destitute 
state, wholly unprovided of any minister of the Church of England, 
except only at one place, Philadelphia. A considerable number of peo- 
ple here, members of the Church of England, had formed themselves 
into a gathered Church, and chose a Vestry, and transmitted to the 
Society a very zealous letter in the year 1704, wherein they say, "They 
can never be sufficiently thankful to Divine Providence, who hath 
raised up this Society to maintain the honor of religion, and to engage 
in the great work, the salvation of men. That gratitude, and an hum- 
ble acknowledgment of their noble and charitable resolution of propa- 
gating the sacred gospel, in these remote and dark corners of the earth, 
is not only a duty, but a debt on all true professors of Christianity." 

At the same time the Society received a letter from the Vestry of 
Chester, in Pennsylvania, full of religious sentunents, that they did bless 
God, who had put it into the hearts of so many charitable persons to 
engage in the great work of promoting the salvation of such as were so 
widely removed from all conveniences of Divine worship as they were, 
till the Christian charity of this Society, not only procured a minister 
for them, but also supported him. This truly was absolutely necessary, 
for though in some parts of that province, and particularly in and about 
Philadelphia, abundance of souls were daily added to the Church, yet 
the number of this parish being small, and the charge of building their 
Church (not then quite finished) together with the great scarcity of 



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28 



Humphrey's History of 



il 



i ' 



money among tbem since the war with Spain, had quite disenabled 
them from taking that weight from the Society, which otlierwise 
they would have willingly done. They never before had grounds even 
to hope the Gospel would be propagated, in those, above all other, 
foreign parts, till they found themselves the subjects of the Society's 
care. The Society received also letters and petitions from the people 
of Dover Hundred, Oxford, and from the Welsh people settled at Rad- 
nor, requesting the Corporation with great earnestness to send them 
missionaries ; and expressing the greatest love and esteem for the doc- 
trine and discipline of the Church of England. 

6. New York Government is next ; this worthy people showed an early 
zeal for having the Church of England worship established among them. 
In the year 1693, an act was passed for settling the Church of England 
service in some counties, and a provision appointed for six ministers, 
one for the city of New York, the capital of the country, and the rest 
for other principal towns. ]3ut this Act did not take eft'ect till about 
the year 1702, nor was the provision made thereby, a sufficient main- 
tenance for the ministers in the country towns. These applied to the 
Society for help ; particularly the inhabitants of West Chester, were 
very pressing for a minister. Earnest memorials were sent from the in- 
habitants of New Rochel, from those of Jamaica, and Hempsted, towns 
in Long Island ; from Staten Island, and from Rye ; and their desires 
have been complied with, and missionaries sent to those places. 

The chief inhabitants of Burlington showed a very early aifection for 
the Church of England worship, which they have continued down to 
the present time inviolable. In 1704, they wrote to the Society, " That 
they had a very deep sense of the happiness of having religion settled 
among them, they desired to adore the goodness of God for moving the 
hearts of the Lord's spiritual and temporal, the nobles and gentry, to 
enter into a Society for Projmgating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the 
benefit of which they had already experienced, and hoped further to 
enjoy. They had joined in subscription to build a Church, which, 
though not yet near finished, they had heard several sermons in it ; but 
they were not able to maintain a minister without the assistance of the 
Society, whereon they begged God to shower his blessings as a reward 
for their great charity aiid care for the good of souls." The Vestry 
wrote a letter to the same effect to Bishop Compton, intreating his 
Lordship's favor, and returning their humble thanks for his care of 
them. 

Colonel Morris, a gentleman of character, and considerable interest in 
New Jersey, did in a letter, in the year 1703, very earnestly solicit 
Dr. Beveridge, (late Bishop of St. Asaph,) a member of this Society, to 
recommend it to the Society, to send a missionary to Monmouth county, 
in East Jei-sey, where a considerable body of people had termed them- 
selves into a gathered Church, and had promised all the help their nar- 
row circumstances could afford their minister. The Society were not 
then able to support a missionary there. But the Rev. Mr. Alexander 
Innis, happening to be in those parts, took the care of that people upon 
him. After a worthy discharge of his function for some years, he died ; 



I I 






The Propagation Society, 4^. 



29 



quite disenabled 
vhich otherwise 
lad grounds even 
above all other, 
of the Society's 
I from the people 
le settled at Ilad- 
ess to send them 
teem for the doc- 

e showed an early 

led among them. 

mrch of England 

for six ministers, 

itry, and the rest 

e effect till about 

a sufficient main- 

!se applied to the 

3st Chester, were 

sent from the in- 

Elempsted, towns 

and their desires 

je places. 

Hirly affection for 

ntinued down to 

e Society, " That 

religion settled 

for moving the 

and gentry, to 

eiffn Parts, the 

loped further to 

Church, which, 

rinons in it ; but 

assistance of the 

ings as a reward 

The Vestry 

intreating his 

(s for his care of 

erable interest in 
earnestly solicit 
f this Society, to 
mmouth county, 
id tbrmed them- 

help their nar- 
!iociety were not 

Mr. Alexander 
hat people upon 

years, he died ; 



-M 
-I 

■I 



upon which the JusUces of the Peace, the High Sheriff, and Grand Jury 
of Monmouth County, did represent to the Society, in the year 1717, 
" That the Worthy and llev. Mr. Alexander Innis, by unwearied pains 
and industry, gathered three congregations in this County, though much 
scattered in their habitations ; yet did he visit them, teach them, and 
instruct them all, once at least in three weeks, in order to their eternal 
happiness, liut alas I since his death, we have been without the means 
of Grace, unhappy in want of a minister of the Established Church to 
officiate in that office, and to instruct the youth in the Church Cate- 
chism. For want of this, we find that some are tossed to and fro, and 
too many count that they are not bound by our holy rehgion, but at 
full liberty to do what may seem good in their own eyes, which hath a 
wretched influence on their morals ; and wo are much afraid that if a 
narrow search were made, such would make up a great bulk, among near 
four hundred families in this County. Therefore that the public worship 
of Almighty God, may be maintained in that order, and according to 
those excellent rules established in the Church of England, we humbly 
pray that your honorable Body would think of us and send over one to 
help us, (Acts xvi, 9,) for such are our circumstances, tliat we cannot 
in this case help ourselves." 

6. Tlie Society received the following very serious and pathetic letter 
from the inhabitants of Salem, in West New Jersey, and the parts ad- 
jacent, in the year 1722 : — " Very Venerable Gentlemen. A poor un- 
happy people settled by God's Providence, to procure by laborious in- 
dustry a subsistence for our families, make bold to apply ourselves to God, 
through that very pious and charitable Society, his happy instruments 
to dispei'se his blessings in these remote parts ; that as his goodness 
hath vouchsafed us a moderate support for our bodies, his Holy Spirit 
may influence you to provide us with spiritual food for our souls. In 
this case our indigence is excessive, and our destitution deplorable, hav- 
ing never been so blessed as to have a person settled among us, to dis- 
pense the august ordinances of religion ; insomuch that even the name 
of it is almost lost among us ; the virtue and energy of it over men's 
lives, almost expiring, we won't say forgotten, for that implies previous 
knowledge of it. But how should people know, having learned so little 
of God and his worship ? And how can they leam without a teacher? 
Our condition is truly lamentable, and deserving Christian compassion. 
And to whom can we apply ourselves, but to that venerable Corpora- 
tion, whoso zeal for the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, hath 
preserved so many in these Colonies, from irreligion, profanoiiess and 
infidelity ? We beseech you therefore, in the name of our common 
Lord and Master, and gracious Redeemer, and for the sake of the Gos- 
pel, (just ready to die among us,) to make us partakers of that bounty 
to these parts ; and according to the motto engraven on your seal, 
Transeuntes adjuvate, nos {pene Jnjideles.) Be pleased to send us some 
Rev. Clergyman, according to your wisdom, who may inform our judg- 
ments, by preaching to us the truths of the Gosi)el ; and recover us all, 
aged and young, out of the miserable corruptions, consequent to a gross 
ignorance of it ; to whom we promise all encouragement according to 



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k 



so 



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Humphrey's History of 



our abilities, and all due respect and obedience to his office, instructions 
and person. The Lord in mercy look upon us, and excite you, accord- 
ing to yoiur wonted piety, to have a compassionate regard of our case, and 
we pray the Great God to prosper all your pious undertakings, to pro- 
mote his glory and the good of his Church, especially in this destitute 
place of the pilgrimage of your most dutiful servants, <fcc." 

The Society were moved by this plain and sincere letter, and soon 
after sent, and have continued ever smce a missionary there. 

7. The last government, New England, though as hath been remark- 
ed before, provided with an Independent and Presbyterian ministry, 
yet had great numbers of inhabitants, who could not follow that persua- 
sion, but were exceeding desirous of worshiping God after the manner 
of the Church of England. I shall give the reader a few petitions from 
congregations of people in this government, which show plamly the So- 
ciety did not concern themselves here, till they were loudly called up- 
on ; and that the inhabitants in many places, did not only send peti- 
tions for ministers, but also built churches before they had any minis- 
ters ; which is an uncontrolable evidence and proo^ that the people 
themselves desired to have the Church of England worship, with a 
hearty zeal and true sincerity. 

In September, 1702, the Church-wardens of Rhode Island wrote to 
the Society, " That they cannot forbear expressing their great joy in 
being under the patronage of so honorable a Corporation, through whose 
pious endeavors, with God's assistance, the Church of England hath so 
fair a prospect of flourishing in those remote parts of the world, and 
among the rest of her sm<all branches, theirs also in Rhode Island. That 
though it is not four years since they began to assemble themselves to- 
gether to worship God after the manner of the Church of England, yet 
have they built them a Church, finished all on the outside, and the in- 
side is pewed well, though not beautiful ; and whatsoever favors the So- 
ciety shall bestow upon them towards the promoting of their Church, 
shall be received with the humblest gratitude, and seconded with the 
utmost of their abilities." 

The Bishop of London, (Dr. Compton,) received at the same time 
petitions for mmisters from Rhode Island, from Narragansett, from New- 
bury, a Church in New Hampshire, from Little Compton and Tiverton, 
from Braiutree near Boston, and from Stratford in Connecticut. The 
case of these two last towns was also further recommended to the So- 
ciety's care, by gentlemen of considerable figure and interest. Col. Morris 
pressed very earnestly for a minister for Bramtree, and Col. Heathcote for 
another, for the people of Connecticut Colony ; great numbers of whom, 
very earnest to have a minister of the Church of England. 



were 



Robert Hunter, Esq., Governor of New York, in the year IT 11, -^.ulc 
thus to the Society, concerning the people at Stratford : — " When i was 
at Connecticut, those of our communion at the Church at Stratford, 
came to me in a body ; and then, as they have since by letter, begged my 
intercession with the Venerable Society, and the Right Rev. the Lord 
Bishop of London, for a missionary ; they appeared very much in earn- 
est, and are the best set of men I met witli in that country." 



i 
t 

ft t 






j^-.Jf^T^---.' 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



31 



See, instructioiu 
lite you, accord- 
of our case, and 
takings, to pro- 
in this destitute 
;c." 

letter, and soon 
lere. 

th been remark- 
terian ministry, 
ow that persua- 
fler the manner 
f petitions from 
plauily tlie So- 
udly called up- 
only send peti- 
lad any mmis- 
lat the people 
v^orship, with a 

[sland wrote to 

eir great joy in 

through whose 

ngland hath so 

the world, and 

e Island. That 

themselves to- 

f England, yet 

[le, and the in- 

favors the So- 

their Church, 

nded with the 

le same time 

stt, from New- 

and Tiverton, 

lecticut. The 

ed to the So- 

Col. Morris 

Heathcote for 

bers of whom, 

of England. 

nil, ^.k'^~ 

When i was 

at Stratford, 

r, begged my 

tev. the Lord 

auch in earn- 



8. The inhabitants of Marblehead, in the year 1714, sent the follow- 
ing petition to the Society, which speaks the hearty disposition of the 
people, when they set up the Church of England worship ; and this 
upon tie proof of many years experience, appears plainly to have been 
no sudden heat or start of zeal, but a well-grounded sense of the excel- 
lency of our Church, since they have continued in the same spirit ever 
since. They express themselves thus to the Society : — " Whereas your 
petitioners, out of a just esteem for the excellent constitution of the 
Church of England, both in its doctrine and discipline, and form of gov- 
ernment, have subscribed suflScient sums of money, towards the erect- 
ing of a building for the service of Almighty God, according to the 
manner of worship prescribed in the Church of England. Your peti- 
tioners humbly desire the honorable Society's favor and encouragement, 
in sending a minister to them with all convenient speed, with the usual 
salary allowed their missionaries. Of what consideration your petitioners 
are will be seen by the number of their names, and the value of their 
subscriptions under-written ; we must also add, that the town of Marble- 
head, (next Boston,) is the greatest place of trade and commerce within 
this province, daily adding to their numbers, persons chiefly of the 
Church of England, and by the blessing of God, we have a certain pros- 
pect, that the Church here, will be every day increased, and flourish 
more and more. Upon these accounts, we hope the Venerable Society 
will be pleased to grant our requests, and your petitioners shall always 
prajr for the Society's prosperity and success in all their great and 
glorious designs." 

It must be noted here, the people did fiilly perform what they prom- 
ised ; and the sum intimated in their petition, for the buildmg of a 
Church, was no less than four hundred and sixteen pounds, subscribed 
by forty-five persons, and the people have continued constant to this 
present time, in their firm adherence to the Church of England. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Testimonials required by the Society from the Missionaries they 
send abroad. The Hules they give them for their conduct. The Rev. 
Mr. Keith and Mr. Talbot sent traveling preachers through several 
Colonies. 

The next labor of the Society was to enquire for persons in Holy Orders, 
duly qualified, who would undertake the mission. For they were easily 
aware, that their missionaries would meet with diflSculties in the dis- 
charge of their ministerial oflSce ; and though there were many well in- 
clined people in those parts, there were also many gainsayers ; and that 
therefore all the means of a watchful and prudent conduct, were neces- 
sary to make their labors successful. The Society agreed tlierefore on 
the 15th of February in 1702, that all the Bishops of the realm, who 
were members of their Body, should be earnestly desired to recommend 



! 






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32 



Humphrey's History of 



it to their Archdeacons and their Officials to cawse public notice to be 
ifiven in their next Archidiaoonnl visitation ; that such clergymen as 
should have a mind to be employed in this Apostolical work, and could 
bring sufficient testimonials, according to a form prescribed ; might give 
in their names to their respective llishop, or to their Archdeacons, to 
be communicated by them to this Corporation ; upon which the Society 
would consult wi a the Lord Bishop of London, in order to the sending 
them to such places as had mast need, and where they might therefore, 
by God's assistance and blessing, do most good. This resolution of 
theirs, the Society printed and published ; cntituling it their request 
concerning fit ministers to be sent abroad ; and do in the beginning of 
it, thus express themselves to the world. " The said Society do request, 
and earnestly beseech all persons concerned, that tliey recommend no 
man out of favor or affection, or any other worldly consideration, but with 
a sincere regard to tlie honor of Almighty God, and our Blessed 
Saviour, as they tender the interest of the Christian religion, and the 
good of men's souls." 

2. In this paper the Society also specified several particulars, concerning 
which they desired the persons would certify, who should recommend 
any clergymen that offered themselves for the mission : namely, their 
age, their condition of life, their temper and prudence, their learning 
and sober conversation, their zeal for the Christian religion, their affec- 
tion to the present government, and conformity to the doctrine and dis- 
cipline of the Church of England. These particulars would surely com- 
pose a very ample and sufficient testimonial ; yet notwitlistanding this, 
the Society used a farther cautionary method of acting, even upon such 
a testimonial being offered ; namely, that no testimonials should be al- 
lowed, but such as were signed by tlie respective diocesan, of any mis- 
sionary who was to be sent abroad ; and where tliat was not practicable, 
by some other persons of credit and note, three at least, of the com- 
munion of the Church of England ; and lastly, that no testimonials 
should be allowed, without first consulting the persons who were said 
to have signed them ; after which the person recommended, is ordered 
to read prayei-s and preach before some of the members of the Society, 
and upon their approbation, he is entertained as a missionary by the 
Society. 

3. These are as careful steps as could have been taken, and no dili- 
gence hath been wanting in the Society, to provide proper pei-sons, to 
discharge the work of the ministry, so difficult m some of the Planta- 
tions. When they have received their missionaries, they give them some 
rules more peculiarly adapted for their proper demeanor in tlie Colonies, 
and for their general conduct in pertbrming the duties of their function 
in those parts, where they might meet witli some disadvantageous cir- 
cumstances. The Society doth particidarly instruct them ; that they 
should take a special care to give no offence to the civil government, by 
intermeddling in affaii-s not relating to their own calHng and function ; 
that they should also endeavor to convince and reclaim those who dis- 
sent from, or oppose tliem, with a spirit of meekness and gentleness only. 



T%$ Propagation Society, ^. 



88 



blic notice to be 
;h clergymen as 
work, and could 
bed ; might give 
Archdeacons, to 
hich the Society 
;r to the sending 
might therefore, 
'his resolution of 
; it their request 
the beginning of 
ciety do request, 
f recommend no 
leration, but with 
md our Blessed 
religion, and the 

ulars, concerning 
juld recommend 
n : namely, their 
!e, their learning 
igion, their affec- 
doctrine and dis- 
rould surely com- 
ritlistanding this, 
, even upon such 
lals should be al- 
?san, of any mis- 

not practicable, 
sast, of the com- 

no testimonials 
IS who were said 
mded, is ordered 
s of tihe Society, 
issiouary by the 

ken, and no dili- 
■oper persons, to 

of the Planta- 
give them some 
in the Colonies, 
of their function 
dvantageous cir- 
hem ; that they 
government, by 
g and function ; 

those who dis- 
gentleness only. 



8. Hie Sodeiy advise their Mianonaries not to dedine any Mt oppof 
imdty of prMohing to ray nttmb«r of people as may b» occasionally 
met together from remote and distrat puts, though it may not be on a 
Saaday or Holyday. That the diief subjects of their sermons shonld 
be the fondameatai Doctrines of Christianity, and the duties of a sober, 
righteous, and godly life, as resulting from such doctrines. That they 
should carefully instruct the people concerning the nature and use of 
the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as being the pecu< 
liar insUttttions of Christ, pledges of communion with him, and meras 
instituted o€ deriving Grace from Wm: that they should didy consid- 
er the qudiftcations of such grown persons to whom they shall admin- 
ister Baptism, as also of those whom they admit to the Lord's Supper, 
according to the directions of the rubric in our Liturgy: that they 
take a special oare to lay a good foundation for all their other ministra* 
tions, by catechising those under their care, whether children or other 
ignorant persons, and explain the Catechism to them in the most famil- 
iar manner: that they should be diligent to show to Heathens and 
Infidels, the necessity of a revelation, and the truth of the Christian, 
contained in the Holy Scriptures. Lastly, The Society direct their 
Missionaries to visit frequently their parishioners ; and if their Parishes 
are of a large extent, that they should, at convenient opportunities, 
ofSciate in different parts of them, that so all the inhabitants, by turns, 
might more commodiously partake of their ministrations. 

4. These are the instructions more peculiarly relatinff to their paro^ 
dual care. With regard to the Corporation, the Missionaries are re> 
quired to keep a constant correspondence with the Sodety by their Sec- 
retary ; and to send over every six months, an account of the state of 
their respective Parishes; that so the Corporation may, from time to 
time, see the progress they make in the good work ; and if any difficul 
ties should anse, consider how they may apply proper remedies. 

5. After mentioning the more peculiar rules the Sodety give their 
lifiasionaries for guiding thdr own conduct, it will not be unseasonable 
to intimate a particular or two, done by the Sodety, for the encourage- 
ment of their Missionaries, upon their engaging to go abroad. They 
advance them half a year's suary upon their setting out, ai^d in case of 
mortality, pay their executors or assigns half a year's salary more. 1[ 
the Society should tbmk it necessary to dismiss any Missionary, provided^ 
it be not oil account of any misdemeanor, they allow him a year's sala- 
ry after his dismission is agreed on at the Board. They allow also 
every Missionary at his going abroad, ten pounds worth of books for a - 
Library, if there is not such a Library already settied in the place t<# 
which he is appointed. They also write with him, a letter of reCbm ^ 
mendation to the Governor of the Colony, and to the people of the Par»^ 
ish where he goes, to intreat the Governor's £avor and protection, and 
to bespeak the people's respect and kindness to him; and allow him ^ 
five pounds worth of small Tracts, to distribute among the poorer peo-^ 
pie, as he shall judge most convenient Lastly, When their Missionai- 

6 



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Humphrey' i History of 



ries have been pressed with very distressing ciroumstanoes, on occasion 
ci any publi« calamity, as war with the Indians, or the like, they have 

5>resented them with very considerable gratuities, beyond their salaries, 
or their due support ; nay, when some of their Missionaries, who have 
behaved themselves worthily, died, and left wife or children quite un- 
provided for, the Society have also made handsome presents to the 
widows or orphans. 

6. Having thus given a description of the religious state of the Col- 
onies, and briefly mentioned some of the principal rules of the Society, 
in the choice of their Missionaries ; it follows in the next place, to lay 
before the reader an account of the laborb and success of the Missiona- 
ries in the several Colonies where they were sent 

7. But here it must be observed to the reader, that the Society, be- 
fore they proceeded to appoint Missionaries to particular places, resolved 
to send a traveling Missionary or preacher, who should travel over, and 
preach in the several Governments on the Continent of the British 
America; by which means they hoped they should awaken the people 
into a sense of the duties of religion. For this purpose they sent the 
Rev. Mr. George Keith, who had formerly resided in Pennsylv^ni£>, an 
itinerant Missionary through the Continent of the British North Amer- 
ica, with an allowance of £200 a year. He set sail from England on 
the 24th of April, in 1702, and arrived at Boston, in New England, on 
the 11th of June fo^lpwing. He performed his mission in two years, 
and returned to England, and published a full accotmt of his labors there, 
of which I shall give the reader here a very short summary. 

He traveled over, and preached in all the Governments and Domin- 
ions belonging to the Crown of England, betwixt l4 rth Carolina and 
Piscataway River in New England inclusively, being ten distinct Gov- 
ernments; and extending in length above 800 miles. During the 
whole time of his mission, he was very assiduous ; he preached com- 
monly twice on Sundays, besides on week-days, and the sermons were 
Eroperly adapted to the hearers, before whom they were delivered. He 
ad generally good success where he preached, the people in many 
E laces, wero weU disposed for receiving of the Gospel, and seemed to 
ear the word with g^reat reverence, humility and zeal : they joined 
with him devoutly in the Liturgy, and all public prayers, and the ad- 
ministration of the Sacrament, and earnestly desired him to present 
their requests to the Society, to have Ministers sent among them. But 
he was especially successful in his preaching, and private and public 
conferences, in several places in Pennsylvania, the two Jerseys, Oyster- 
Bay in Long Island, and at New York, where he labored most, and con- 
tinued the longest time. In the two first of these places a great num- 
ber of separatist Quakers or Keithians, who had separated from the 
body of Quakers in the years 1691 and 1692, had quite relinquished 
Quaker principles, and joined themselves to the Church of England 
members at Philadelphia; where the Rev. Mr. Evans, who had been 
sent thither by the Bishop of London, had now a very numerous con- 



The Propagation Society^ ^•c. 



8ft 



numerous cou- 



ffefation. These people, when they saw Mr. Keith, who had been the 
chi^ instrument and occasion of their forsakiag the Quaker erron, 
cominff M;ain among them, and in the character of a Minister of the 
Church of England, they expressed great joy and satisfaction to hear 
him preach what tended to their farther confirmation in the Christian 
faith. Mr. Evans, the Minister of Philadelphia, acouainted him, he had 
baptized abov« five hundred men, women, and children, Quakers, in 
Pennsylvania and West J«rsey. And Mr. Keith, during his continu- 
ance in those parts, together with the Rev. Mr. Talbot, who accompa- 
nied him as his associate in his labors, baptized at least two hundred in 
Pennsylvania, and West and East Jersey, New York, and in some placee 
on Long Island, especially Oyster-Bay. 

The Kev. Mr. Joon Talbot happened to bo ChapUin to the Ship, the 
Centurion, in which Mr. Keith went over to America, together with 
Gov. Dudley and Col. Morris ; and being very much ajffected with the 
good undertaking which Mr. Keith was engaged to carry on, he ofiered 
to go with him as his associate in his travels, and was accepted ; several 
persons of worth transmitted to the Society a fair character of him, 
upon which he was supported with a salary, and Mr. Keith acquainted 
the Society, that he was very useful to him in his labors, very diligent 
and very aealous in discharging all the MinisteriaJ duties. 

There were now settled in Pennsylvania three Church of England 
con^gations, which had convenient Churches at Philadelphia, Chea- 
ter, and Oxfoi'd. The Rev. Mr. Evans, Minister of Philadelphia, preach- 
ed occasionally at Chester, and the Rev. Mr. Rudraan, a Sweedish Mis- 
sionary, officiated at Oxford. At Philadelphia, they had public pray- 
ers not only on Sundays, but also on Wednesdays and Fridays, and by 
a mean computation there was an audience of five hundred persons from 
the town and country near Philadelphia, and more on great Festivals. 
At the Church at Chester, there assembled comnwnly two hundred 
persons, and at Oxford above one hundred and fifty. These Churches are 
within thirty miles distance of each other, and were frequented by a 
considerable number of late converts to the Church from Quakerism, 
and were persons of good note for their Christian conversation, devotion 
and zeal There did usually assemble between two and three hundred 
persons, at Burlington in West Jersey, about twenty miles distant from 
Philadelphia, lying on the North side of Delaware river. Mr. Keith and 
Mr. Talbot labored much among them, and with good success ; the con- 
gregation which assembled there, became a religious people, and well 
affected to the Church of England, though formerly the greater part of 
them were a loose sort of persons, regardless of all religion. Several 
of these desired baptism, and had also their children baptized by Mr. 
Keith and Mr. Talbot, or by Mr. Evans before their arrival, and had 
lately built a Church, and called it St. Ann's. 

Mr. Keith labored also much among the other sort of Quakers called 
Foxians, went to their meetings, and oflered with all manner of good 
friendship to speak there, in ten several places ; at three in New Eng- 



86 



Humphrey's History of V 



landf at one in Rhod* Island, at Flushing in Long bland, at Shrewi* 
bunr in East Jenev, at Burlington in West Jeraev, at Philadelphia, at 
Oxford in Pennsylvania, and at Herrinff-Creek in Maryland; but he 
found them obstinately attached to their own notions, and bstead of 
■bowing any expressions of kindness, used much reviling language 
towards him. 

In divers parts of New Endand, he found not only many people well 
affected to the Church, who had no Church of England ministers, but 
also several New England ministers desirous of Episcopal Ordination, 
and ready to embrace the Church-woi«bip; Some of whom both hos- 
pitably entertained Mr. Keith and Mr. Talbot in their houses, and re- 
quested them to preach in their congregations, which they did, and re- 
ceived great thanss both from the ministers and from the people. 

Mr; Keith, during his abode in these countries, printed also several 
sermons and tracts, in answer to books of Quakers and others, which 
were generally approved of, and seemed to have been very usefol 
towards removing some prejudices against the Church of England. 

Mr. Keith, in the conclusion of his narrative, represented to the So* 
dety, the want of a great number of ministers for a people dispened 
over such large countries; and assured them that several congregations 
in many towns, had engaged him to present their humble requests to 
the Society, to send ministers to them. The chief of these were Am« 
boy, Shrewsbury, Freehold and Elizabethtown in East Jersey, Maid' 
enhead and Cohansy in West Jersey ; Narragansett, Swansey, Little* 
Compton, or Seconet in New England ; Rhode Island and Shrewsbury, 
by Chester River in Maryland ; and Newcastle by Delaware River m 
Pennsylvania, where they were building a Church when he came 
away. And lastly, the people of Princess Ann's County, in the south 
parts of Virginia, which is one hundred and fifty miles in lengthy and had 
not one minister; though there were a great many people aealously 
disposed to the Church of England worship. 

8. This is the sum of Mr. Keith's narrative ; and from this, and the 
former accounts transmitted by many other hands, the Society thought 
they had sufficient light mven them where to send Missionaries, which 
they proceeded to do, as from the following sections will appear. 



< • CHAPTER V. 

Missionaries sent to South Carolina: The places to which they were 
appointed ; their labors and siiccess : A War raised by the Yammo- 
sees and other Indians, against the English : The tranquillity (tf 
this Province happily restored : Thirteen Churches and four Chapels 
of Ease built : Salaries settled on the Clergy : Schools opened: 

Thb Province of South Carolina showed so earnest a desire of having 
Ministers of the Church of England, upon the first information they 
received of this Corporation being erected, that the Society resolved very 



J%e Propagation Society, ^. 



87 



eftrij to send IfiMionariM to this Colony, that ao good • dbposHkm of 
the people might be Msiated as soon as poeeible. Accordinfl^ in June, 
1702, the Reverend Mr. Samuel Thomas wis sent thither. Tne Society 
designed he should I vie first attempted the conversion of the Yammoeee 
Indians, but the Qo vemor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, and several other 
gentlemen there judging it not to be a proper season to enter upon thb 
work, he did not engage in that mission; but after some small 
continuance in the Governor's family, l.e was appointed by Sir Nathaniel 
Johnson, to the cure of the people settled on the three branches of 
Cooper River, fifteen miles distant from each other; but to make 
Oooecreek the chief place of his residence. Gooscreek was one of the 
largest and most populous countir towns, and settled by English 
families entirely well affected to the Church of England, and who 
formerly had for some time the Reverend Mr. Corbin for their Minister. 
The Parish is twenty miles in length, and from eight to fourteen in 
breadth ; Mr. Thomas discharged his ministerial office with very good 
success ; he acquainted the Society, that though his oommunicanti 
at first were but five, they soon increased to thirty-two ; that he had 
taken much pains also in instructing the negroes, and learned twenty 
of them to read. But in October, 1 706, this worthy missionary died, fas 
several gentlemen of the countrv wrote word,) veiy much lamented ibr 
his sound doctrine, exemplary life, and industry ; after having laid a good 
foundation for his successors to carry on the work he had begun. 

The Society appointed the Reverend Dr. Le Jeau to succeed him. 

Upon his arrival m the country in 1706, he acquainted them, he had 

met with an extraordinary kind reception from his Excellency the 

Governor and the Chief Justice, and had received many tokens of 

great civility and goodness from several worthy persons. The people 

were then very busy in providing all materials for fitting up the Church 

and Parsonage House, which they soon after completed. He transmitted 

to the Society an account of the state of his Parish and other neighboring 

settlements, wherein he represented very earnestly, that it was the 

greatest pity imaginable, to see how many various opinions had been 

spread there, by a multitude of teachers and expounders of all sorts and 

persuasions ; and yet he could find very few, that understood Christianity, 

even as to the essential parts of it ; yet the parents and masters were 

endued with much good will, and a ready disposition, to have their 

children and ser'^nts taught the Christian Religion. He was not only 

very diligent in his proper cure at Gooscreek, but also assisted in other 

places, where a Minister was wanting; the Church at Charlestown, 

Deing some time after his arrival vacant, he used to preach once a month 

there, where at Easter he had but twenty-four communicants, though 

there were above five hundred persons of age in the place. *e 

sometimes visited the French settlement in Orange quarter, then 

entirely destitute of a Minister, and administered the Sacraments among 

them. This settlement consisted then of about thirty-two families, out 

of which there were fifty persons communicants. Hu own Parish had 



88 



Humphrey's History of 



abo\it one hundred families, making up one thousand persons, much the 
greater number of which were members of the Church of England. He 
perfonned all parts of his ministerial duty with great diligence. The first 
year of his mission, he baptized twenty-one children, the second 
nineteen, and the number of the communicants increased to thirty-five. 
He instructed and baptized many negroes and Indian slaves; and 
whereas he found several parents had neglected to have their children 
baptized, because they paid some duties to the Minister, he acquainted 
them he desired nothing, and prevailed upon a considerable number of 
them to bring their children for Baptism ; and by his private as well as 
public discourses, persuaded several persons of a grown age, to attend 
him to be instructed in the essential doctrines of Christianity, in order 
for receiving Baptism. He used frequently on week days to catechize 
the younger people at his house, as finding nothing conduced more 
towards promoting the Gospel, than this private instruction of the youth. 
The Doctor was not only very laborious in his function, but by God's 
blessing very successful, and happy in gaining the affections of his 
people. Soon after his being fixed among them, they made a voluntary 
subscription of £60 a year Carolina money for him. The Church they 
first built became too small for the growing number of his parishioners, 
and they erected a beautiful brick edifice. A Parsonage House was 
built by some public benefactions, which happening to be sometime 
aflter unfortunately destroyed by fire (all but the brick-work) the 
charitable country bestowed a very considerable sum for its repair. 
Captain Schenckingh, a worthy gentleman of the Parish, gave one 
hundred acres of good glebe land to the Church forever. The Doctor, 
after this, acquainted the Society, that his parishioners were much 
improved, and become of a very sober, civil, and edifying behavior, and 
that he had a full and constant appearance at Church ; though there 
remained some few atheistical persons and scoffers at all revelation. His 
congregation grew still more numerous, the communicants increased, 
and in 1714, they arose to seventy English, and eight negroes. In the 
year lYlT, Dr. Le Jeau died; very much lamented by his own 
parishioners, and regretted by every one, who knew how useful and 
mdustrious he had been in promoting the Gosi)cl in those parts. In the 
year 1720, the Society sent the Reverend Mr. Merry a missionary into 
Garohna, and the Church of Gooscreek being then vacant, the 
parishioners requested him to come and reside among them, which he 
did for some time, but stayed not long, and returned again to England. 
The Society, upon the request of the inhabitants of Gooscreek, soon after 
appointed another missionary, the Reverend Mr. Ludlam ; he arrived 
therein the year 1724, and began his mission with great diligence. 
There were m his Parish a large number of negroes, natives of the 
place, who understood English well. He took good pains to instruct 
several of these in the principles of the Christian religion, and after- 
wards admitted them to baptism. He said if the masters of them 
«rould heartily concur to forward so .good a work, all those who have 



■i 






The Propagation Society, ^c. 



39 



been bom in the country, might without much difSculty be instructed 
and received into the Church. Mr. Ludlam continued his labors among 
the negroes, and every year taught and baptized several of them ; in 
one year, eleven, besides some mulattoes. The English of his Parish 
were a very sober and well-behaved people, and duly attended divine 
worship. Some few, who had been of looser principles, and negligent 
of the ordinances of the Gospel, were persuaded to a due conformity to 
the Church, and several grown persons received baptism. The people 
continued regularly to bring then* children to baptism, and devoutly 
frequented the Sacrament. Mr. Ludlam persevered in a diligent 
discharge of all the duties of his functions; but in October, 1728, he 
died ; and in testimony of his regard to the Society's good designs, and 
his respect to the people of his Parish, bequeathed by his last will, all 
his estate, real and personal, to the Society in trust, for erecting and 
maintaining a School for the instruction of poor children of that 
Parish. His whole estate is computed to amount to about £2,000 
Carolina money, after payment of his debts. 

2. The Society sent the Reverend Mr. Maule, missionary to Carolina, in 
1707; he arrived there the same year; he was not appointed to any 
particular place, but it was left to the Governor and Council to fix him 
where they should judge he could be most useful. Upon his arrival 
there, he met with a very favorable reception at Charlestown, from the 
Governor and other gentlemen of the Province. He was soon after 
fixed in St. John's Parish, on the western branch of Cooper river ; it is a 
pleasant and healthful part of the country, and the planters there were 

fenerally good, sober, and teachable people; but settled at a great 
istance from each other, in scattered plantations. He was the first 
Clergyman of the Church of England, that resided there for any 
considerable time. Upon his preaching at his first coming, to a good 
number of Churchmen, he had several Independents and Anabaptists 
who came to hear him, and behaved themselves veiy devoutly and 
attentively, during the whole time of divine service. He took a great 
deal of pains in the discharge of his duty, and upon account of the 
distance between the settlements, was obliged to ride very often, which 
was exceeding fatiguing, (especially during the sultry season in that 
country,) as well as expensive to him. The good people were sensible 
of this difSculty he underwent in traveling, and to ease him as much 
as they could, did, without his knowledge, raise among themselves 
twenty-five pounds Carolina money, and bought a horse, and other 
accoutrements, and made him a present of them. Upon his first 
settling here, the English had no Church to perform divine worship in, 
but about ten French families had built them a small Church, and their 
Minister, Mr. Tuilliard offered Mr. Maule the use of his Church, which 
he accepted, and preached often there ; and such of the French as 
understood English, came to hear him. At other times, he preached up 
and down among the plantations, as the houses lay most convenient for 
the people to meet at. In the year 1706, an act of assembly had 
passed there for building eight churches in eight Parishes, and three 



m 



Humphrey's History of 






I 



hundred and thirty-UiToe pounds Carolina money \iaa allotted for eacL 
At len^, about the year 1710, the English began to build a Church, 
and this sum was expended now in buil<£ug one in St John's Parish. 
All the outside was not finished till 1711. However, Mr. Maule resolved 
to begin to make use of it, though there was no conveniency of seats or 
pulpit, or other furniture. Soon after Colonel Broughton, a worthy 
gentleman and serious Christian, coming to reside in that Parish, he 
very generously adorned the Church, made a Communion Table, railed 
in the Chancel, made a Pulpit, Reading desk, and some Pews ; all with 
cedar. 

This good man'3 labors were attended with success ; the people 
regularly came to divine service, and many frequented the Sacrament; 
and the whole body of them were influenced to lead more orderly and 
Christian lives. Among other causes of their religious improvement he 
mentions, that the books which the Society distributed among the 
people, by their missionaries, had a very good effect ; and proved very 
mstrumental in removing a great many prejudices out of the minds of 
some, and in making the whole people in general, more incmisitive about 
their spiritual concernment Particularly, the Common Prayer Books 
which he had dispersed among the people, had influenced many to come 
to Church ; and Dr. Beveridge's sermon of the excellency and usefulness 
of the Common Prayer, which he distributed with the Common Prayer 
Books, was of great service. 

Thus he continued dili^nt in all parts of his duty, till the fatal Indian 
War broke out, in the year 1715, at which time all his parishioners 
were driven from their plantations. In this calamity he did not forsake 
them, but retired with them to a garrison, whither they fled for safety f 
and continued for above four months to perform all the ofiBces of his 
function. He baptized their children, visited their sick and wounded, 
and buried their dead, preached every Lord's day, and read prayers 
twice every day in the week. The duty was much above his strength, 
especially as performed in a numerous crowd, confined in a small 
compass of ground, and in very sultry weather too. However he 
underwent it with cheerfulness. " Considering (as he expresses himself) 
that having hitherto lived among them in their prosperity, I could not, 
in conscience, desert them in times of danger and distress, that so I might 
learn them by example as well as doctrine, to submit with cheerfulness 
to the Will of God." Thus he persevered till the War grew less 
dangerous, and the people returned to their plantations. But this 
fifttigue threw him into a bloody flux, through which, after many 
relapses, he died, very much lamented by all the country; and to express 
his hearty wishes to the Society's designs, he made them, by his last 
will, residuary legatees, from which Uiey received above six hundred 
pounds Carolina money. 

The Reverend Mr. Moses Clerk was appointed by the Society to 
succeed Mr. Maule : he arrived in Carolina in 1720, but a few months 
after, died. The Chiu-ch-wardens and Vestry petitioned the Society for 
another missionary, and the Reverend Mr. Bryan Hunt was sent over. 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



41 



but he was not successful in his mission : hi^ contentious behavior gave 
great offence to many of the parishioners; and in the year 1728, after 
many differences and contests, he left his Parish, and returned to England. 
The Society immediately after, in the year 1729, appointed the 
Reverend Mr. Daniel Dwight, missionary to this Parish. 

3. The Society received requests from the people of St. Bartholomew'i 
Parish for a missionary, and the Reverend Mr. Osborn was sent thither. 
He arrived in 1713, and was the first Minister of the Church of England, 
that had settled there. His cure proved very difficult, for the Parish 
was above thirty miles long from north to south, and forty from east to 
west ; there were about one hundred and twenty families in it, at hia 
first coming; the people were spread at great distances, in scattered 
plantations, over all this large tract of land ; which made the fatigue and 
labor of serving his cure very great. He was obliged, for the people's 
conveniency, to officiate at five different places, some of them twenty 
miles distant from the place of his abode. He acquainted the Society, 
the people were very ready to be taught and instructed in the Christian 
faith, that soon after his being fixed among them, he had baptized 
above seventy, many of them grown persons ; at first they had some 
scruples about receiving the Sacrament, but he began to remove them 
by private conferences. He continued very diligent in his duty, and 
was much respected by his parishioners. But in the year 1715, the 
unhappy Indian War broke out; the savages destroyed all the 
plantations in his Parish, and also those of St. Helen's in Port Royal 
Island. The people abandoned the place entirely ; their houses and 
plantations were spoiled and burnt. The Indians made so sudden an 
irruption into these parts, that they were within less than three miles of 
Mr. Osbom's house, before they were discovered ; he just had notice to 
make a difficult escape to Charlestown, abandoning all that he had to 
the savages; where soon after he died, with the general character of an 
honest and useful man. This Parish hath not yet recovered from the 
ravages of the Indians, many of the people did not return to their 
settlements ; the Society therefore have not fixed a missionary here ; 
but some of the Ministers of other Parishes have occasionally officiated 
among those who returned to their Plantations. 

4. The Parish of St. Helen's in Port Royal Island, agreed in the year 
1712, to have a Minister resident among them. ITiey were acquainted 
with, and had a good esteem for the Reverend Mr. Guy, then assistant 
to the Reverend Mr. Johnson, the Rector of Charlestown ; they proceeded 
to elect him for their Minister, according to the Laws of this Province ; 
after having first obtained the consent of the Reverend Mr. Johnson, the 
Bishop of London's Commissary, then at Charlestown. Presently after, 
they wrote to the Bishop of London, and to the Society, an account of 
this election. They represented in their letters, that they were the most 
remote Parish in the country, and not well settled as yet; that sine© 
their first fixing there, they never had a Minister resident; and therefore 
prayed the Society, in compassion to their great wants, to allow Mr. Guy 

6 



42 



Humphrey's History of . 



a salary. Mr. Guy was then in Deacon's Orders only ; he returned to 

England in the year 1713, and received Priest's Orders ; and the Society 

appointed him missionary there. He arrived in Carolina soon after, and 

acquainted the Society, that he had entered upon his cure. This Parish 

was very large and extensive, for the whole nation of the Yammosee 

Indians was included in it. Mr. Guy was very diligent in the discharge 

of all parts of his ministerial office ; he instructed and baptized several 

grown persons, besides the younger children. Though there had been 

'formerly some Anabaptist and Presbyterian teachers here, yet at his 

arrival, the people had no teacher of any persuasion, and lived all 

without using any kind of public divine worship. Notwithstanding 

which, they were very well disposed ; and for their greater conveniency, 

Mr. Guy performed divine service in some of the parishioners' houses, 

sometimes in one part of the Parish, sometimes in another, that all the 

people, at times, might have an opportunity of coming to divine worship. 

Mr. Guy wrote to the Society, that he met with many favors from hw 

parishioners, and that they behaved, both publicly and privately, very 

obUgingly and kindly to him. But in the year 1715, both he and all 

his Parish, narrowly and very providentially escaped; being cut oflFby 

the Indians. The Yammosees inhabiting part of that Parish, rose 

suddenly and fell on the English ; if there had not been a ship lying in 

the river, on board of which, the English got, and so escaped to 

Charlestown, they would have .been all utterly destroyed by the 

savages. Some few who did not make a timely escape on board, fell 

into the Indians, hands, and were massacred. 

5. Having mentioned before, this Indian war, and since I shall be 
obliged, to take notice of it again, as a calamity, which not only very 
much stopped the progress of the Gospel in those parts, but very greatly 
threatened the civil state of that country, I shall give the reader here 
some short account of it. In the year 1715, the Indians adjoining to 
this colony, all round from the borders of Fort St. Augustine to Cape 
Fear, had formed a conspiracy to extirpate the white people. This war 
broke out the week before Easter. The Parish of St. Helen's had some 
apprehensions of a rising among the adjoining Indians, called the 
Yammosees. On Wednesday before Easter, Captain Nairn, Agent 
among the Indians, went, with some others, to them, desiring to know 
the reason of their uneasiness, that if any injury had been done them, 
they might have satisfaction made them. The Indians pretended to be 
well content, and not to have any designs against the English ; Mr. 
Nairn therefore and the other traders continued in the Pocotaligat 
town, one of the chief of the Yammosee nations. At night they went 
to sleep in the Round-house, with the King and chief war-captains, in 
seeming perfect friendship ; but next morning, at break of day, they 
were all killed with a volley of shot, excepting one man and a boy, who 
providentially escaped (the man much wounded) to Fort- Royal, and 
[ave notice of the rising of the Indians to the inhabitants of St. Helen's. 
Jpon this short warning, a ship happening to be in the river, a great 



gav 



The Propagation Society, ^-c. 



4d 



number of the inhabitants, about three hundred souls, made their 
escape on board her to Charlestown, and among the rest, Mr. Guy, the 
Society's missionary ; having abandoned all their effects to the savages : 
some few families fell into their hands, who were barbarously tortured 
and murdered. 

The Indians had divided themselves into two parties ; one fell upon 
Port-Royal, the other upon St. Bartholomew's Parish ; about one 
hundred Christians fell into their hands, the rest fled, among which, 
the Rev. Mr. Osborn, the Society's Missionary there. The women 
and children, with some of the best of their effects, were conveyed to 
Charlestown ; most of the houses and heavy goods in the Parish were 
burnt or spoiled. The Yammosees gave the first stroke in this war, but 
iwere presently joined by the Appellachee Indians. On the north side 
of the I*rovince, the English had at first some' hopes in the faithfulness 
of the Calabaws and Creek Indians, but they soon after declared for the 
Yammosees. 

Upon news of this rising, the Governor, (the Hon. Charles Craven, 
Esq.,) with all expedition, raised the forces in Colleton County, and 
with what assistance more could be got presently, put himself at their 
head, and marched directly to the Indians, and the week after Easter 
came up with them, and attacked them at the head of the River Cam- 
bahee; and after a sharp engagement put them to flight, and stopped 
all farther incursions on that side. • 

In the meantime, on the other Northern side, the savages made an 
inroad as far as a plantation of Mr. John Heme, distant 30 miles from 
Gooscreek ; and treacherously killed that gentleman, after he had (upon 
their pretending peace) presented them with provisions. Upon news 
of this disaster, a worthy gentleman, Capt. Thomas Barker, was sent 
thither with ninety men on horseback ; but by the treachery of an In- 
dian whom he trusted, fell into an ambuscade, in some thick woods, 
which they must necessarily pass. The Indians fired upon them from 
behind trees and bushes. The English dismounted, and attacked the 
savages, and repulsed them ; but having lost their brave commanding 
officer, Mr. Barker, and being themselves in some disorder, made their 
retreat. Upon this advantage, the Indians came farther on towards 
Gooscreek, at news of which, the whole Parish of Gooscreek became 
deserted, except two fortified plantations ; and the Rev. Dr. Le Jeau, the 
Society's Missionary there, fled to Charlestown. 

These Northern Indians, being a body of near four hundred men, 
after attacking a small Fort in vain, made proposals of peace, which the 
mirrison unwarily hearkening to, admitted several of them into the 
Fort, which they surprised and cut to pieces the garrison, consisting of 
seventy white people and forty blacks ; a very few escaped. After this 
they advanced farther, but on the 13th of June, Mr. Chicken, the 
Captain of the Gooscreek Company, met and attacked them, and after 
a long action, defeated them, and secured the Province on that side 
from farther ravages. 



44 



I \ 



w 



Humphrey's History of f 



The Society received these calamitous relations from CaroIiDa with 
much concern, both on account of the distress of the inhabitants and 
of their Missionaries. They thought it incumbent on them to do 
something towards the relief of the latter, who were sent by them to 
those places. Accordingly a letter was wrote to all the Mission- 
aries, acquainting them, how sensible the Society was of the hard- 
ships they underwent, and that they had agreed to give half a year's 
salary to each of them as a gratuity, for their present assistance. That 
this bounty might be paid them with all speed, a letter was wrote by 
the same conveyance to Col. Rhet, a worthy gentleman in that country, 
desiring him, on the account of the Society, to pay each of their Mis- 
sionaries and Schoolmasters half a year's salary ; and in case the other 
Clergy of the Colony, who were not Missionaries, should be in great 
straights upon account of this public calamity, he should also pay each 
of them a sum not exceeding £30 sterling ; which the Society present- 
ed them towards their support ; and that be might draw upon their 
Treasurer for all sums paid. Col. Rhet was pleased very kindly, to pay 
all the Missionaries who applied to him, the money the Society had 
directed ; and also to the Rev. Mr. Lapierre, and Mr. Richburg, two 
French Ministers, who were not employed by the Society, £30 each ; 
they were both just preparing to quit the country, on account of their 
great want, but were prevented by so seasonable a relief through the 
Society's bounty. 

6. Having given the reader this short relation of the Indian war, 
which brought so much confusion on the religious as well as civil state 
of this growing Colony, I shall now resume the first subject, and con- 
tinue on the account of labors of the Missionaries in each Parish. The 
inhabitants of the Parish of St. Helen's, in Port-Royal Island, before 
mentioned, had been all drove from their settlements, by the Yammo- 
sees ; but upon the suppressing of the Indian ravages, the people re- 
turned to their Plantations. They were encouraged to do so, the sooner, 
because Port-Royal Island had a very capacious and safe harbor, and 
was likely to become a place of great trade, as being a commodious 
station for shipping, and the country around, affording plenty of all 
provisions. Here are now computed to be above seventy families. 
They obtained a considerable sum of money from the Government there, 
towards building a Church, to which several worthy gentlemen added 
contributions, and in the year 1724, built a small Church, a neat brick 
building, in length, from the west end to the chancel, 40 feet, and in 
breadth, 30; the chancel is 10 feet square. The communion table, 
pulpit, desk, and some pews are made of cedar. There was a pressing 
occasion for having a Church here, because the inhabitants of this Par- 
ish live at a great distance from each other, and the nearest of them at 
least forty miles distant from any other Parish Church. The people, 
when they began to build their Church, requested the Society to send 
them a Missionary. The Rev. Mr. Lewis Jones was appointed hither in 
the year 1725. He hath behaved himself worth;' v in the discharge of 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



45 



all the duties of his mission, and instructed several grown persons in the 
Christian Faith, aiid admitted them to Baptism. He continues still here. 

7. The Rev. Mr. Hasell was sent to the Parish of St. Thomas in 1709. 
He had been formerly employed by the Society, as Catechist in Charles- 
town ; which office he discharged with diligence. The first Church 
built here, (now used for a Chapel of Ease,) was called Fomkinhill 
Church, from a rising hill of that name, on which it was built ; it is 
situated near the river side, made of cypress wood, thirty foot square, 
erected about the year 1703, at the charge of the neighborhood, and 
by the particular assistance of Sir N^athaniel Johnson. But the Parish 
Church of St. Thomas was built of brick, situated on a neck of land, 
on the northwest of Wandoe river, and southwest of Cooper river ; in 
pursuance of an Act of Assembly made in 1 706. The foundation of this 
Church was laid in 1707, and the building finished the next year; Mr. 
Hasell was the first Minister of this Church, elected by virtue of the above 
mentioned Act There are in this Parish upwards of 600 acres of 
Glebe land, 20C oi which adjoin to the Church ; and 420 to the Chapel 
of Ease. There is as yet no Parsonage-house built in this Parish, but 
the money allowed by the Assembly for that use, is laid out at interest, 
till it shall arise to a sufficient sum to build one. There were, in the 
year 1713, about 120 families in this Parish, including the settlements 
m Orange quarter; but now the inhabitants are computed to amount to 
665 whites, 950 negroes, 60 Indian slaves, and 20 free negroes, in 
all near sixteen hundred souls. Mr. Hasell had very good success 
in his ministry, and was respected and loved by his parishioners and a 
great many persons of unsettled principles were induced to hold a firm 
Kiith. A great many young persons, descended of dissenters of 
various tenets, conformed to the Church of England, and severe^ 
young men of French parentage in Orange quarter, who under- 
stood English, constantly attended his Church. The books the So- 
ciety sent to be distributed by him were of great use, especially the 
Common Prayer Books, given to the younger people of the French, and 
to dissenters' children. Mr. Hasell continues still m this mission, with a 
very advantageous character. 

The District of Orange quarter is a French settlement, but in the 
first division of the country into Parishes, was part of St. Thomas' 
Parish ; few of the people attended service in the English Church for 
want of the language. The major part of tliera usually met together 
in a small Church of their own, where they generally made a pretty 
full congregation, when they had a French Minister amongst them ; 
they were poor, and unable to support their Minister, and made appli- 
cation to the Assembly of the Province, to be made a Parish, and to 
have some public allowance for a Minister Episcopally ordained, who 
should use the Liturgy of the Church of England, and preach to them 
in French. Accordingly, they were incorporated by the name of the 
Parish of St. Dennis, till such time as they should understand English. 
They have now a pretty good Church built about the time St Thomaa' 
waa, and never had but one Minister, Mr. Lapierre. 



It 



« 



Humphrey's Hiatory of 



8. In the year 1*706, the Rev. Mr. Dun was sent, to St PauPs ParisJi, 
in Colleton County. A small but convenient brick Church was erect- 
ed, about the year 1708, in length 85, in breadth 25 feet, situated on 
the head of Stono River, about twenty miles distant from Charlestown 
to the southward. It is built on a piece of land given by Mr. Edmund 
Bellinger, a gentleman of that Parian ; and a narrow piece of land near 
the Church, containing about seventy-one acres, was laid out for a 
Glebe. A little, but commodious dwelling house of brick, was built for 
the Minister, with an out-kitchen, and some necessary timber buildings; 
but this house, and the other out-buildings, were burnt in the Indian 
war. Mr. Dun wrote word that he found the common people very ig- 
norant, and was obliged to stay some time to instruct them before he 
could properly administer the Sacraments. He did not continue long 
there, and Mr. Mateland succeeded him, about the year 1*708, but died 
not long after. The Rev. Mr. William Tredwel Bull was appointed 
Missionary there in 1712. He demeaned himself with prudence and 
civility, and was so diligent in all parts of his pastoral care, tha' the 
Church considerably increased ; and the flourishing condition of it at 
present is much owing to his labors. In the year 1721, the Vestry laid 
a petition before the General Assembly, setting forth, " That, the num- 
ber of the inhabitants and of the members of the Church of England 
was so much increased, that their Parish Church was too little for Uiem, 
and that for want of room, some were forced to stand without the door, 
and others hang at the windows; and that having agreed among them- 
selves upon the necessary enlargement, they found it would cost con- 
siderably more than £1000, when completed, with such decency as 
becomes the house of God: that thev were willing to contribute to 
their utmost, though many of them nad been great sufferers in the 
Indian war, and scarce able to build their own houses destroyed in that 
war." The General Assembly very generously allowed £500, and the 
people very liberally and cheerfully, subscribed £1000 more, Carolina 
money; with which they made a very neat and regular additional 
building to their Church. Mr. Bull continued till the year 1723, very 
successful in the discharge of the duties of his function, and happy in 
having the love and esteem of his parishioners. He was obliged to re- 
turn to England, on account of some family affairs, and having resolved 
to continue here, was, in consideration of his services to the Church 
abroad, promoted to a benefice here in England. In the year 1724, the 
Society sent the Rev. Mr. Dand Standish, Missionary to this Parish ; 
he entered ppon the duties of his function with diligence, and behaved 
himself so as to gain the esteem and love of his parishioners. His con- 
gregation increased, and several grown persons desired and received 
baptism. He extended his labors to other places, where there was no 
Minister ; particularly in Edisto Island, where a large number of Church- 
men and Anabaptists used to meet him. The people of his Parish 
made an additional building to their Church, and were so much satis- 
fied with their Minister, that in the year 1727, they purchased a Glebe 



The Propagation Society, J!fC. 



47 



fo^him, of four hundred acres of land, joining to the Church, and very 
pleasantly situated on a large river, about twenty miles distant from 
Charlestown, with a house upon it, and some other necessary buildings ; 
Mr. Standish continued diligent in all parts of his office, tall the year 
1728, in which he died. 

9. The inhabitants of Christ Church Pariah had not a missionary sent 

to them until the year 1711. However, that the people might not be 

left destitute of having divine worship celebrated, tne Reverend the 

Clergy neighboring to this Parish, Mr. Commissary Johnston, Mr. 

Maule, Mr. Hasell, missionaries from the Society, and the Reverend Mr. 

Lapierre, gave each a sermon monthly at this Church, until the Society 

appointeid the Reverend Mr. Gilbert Jones their missionary there. The 

foundation of Christ Church was laid in 1707, and the public allowance 

of £333 was expended, but the building not completed in 1712, when 

Mr. Jones came to this Parish. Upon his being elected Rector of this 

Church, the parishioners petitioned the General Assembly for a further 

sum toward finishing their Church ; £200 more was given, and the 

Parish raised among themselves about sixty-seven pounds more, with 

which they finished their Church, bought one hundred acres of land for 

a Glebe, and built a convenient house and kitchen at four miles distance 

from the Church. Mr. Jones sat about the duties of his function, with 

great diligence and earnestness; and as the people had been lon^ 

without a resident minister, there were many grown children ana 

persons of age unbaptized. He persuaded them to bring their children 

Tor baptism, and soon after his being settled there, received into the 

Church one hundred and thirty-six children besides seven grown 

persons; though the number of housekeepers then was but one hundred 

and five. He used also great pains to persuade the masters and 

mistresses to assist in having their slaves instructed in the Christian 

faith ; but found this good work lay under difficulties as yet insuperable. 

He wrote thus concerning this matter. Though laboring in vain be 

very discouraging, yet {by the help of Ood) I will not cease my 

laborSy and if I shall gain but one proselyte^ shall not think much of 

all my pains. He was not only very laborious in his cure, but out of 

a kind regard to the poverty of his parishioners, occasioned by the 

Indian war, he declined taking any contributions from them, lest some 

unsettled persons might think their religion too dear, and therefore 

forsake it. He contracted several fits of sickness by his constant 

application, and so impaired his constitution, that he was obliged to 

ask leave from the Society to come to Fngland ; the Society consented, 

and he returned home in 1721 and couUuaed here in England. 

The Society sent the Reverend Mr. Pownall in his room ; he arrived 
there in Novenaber, 1722. He acquainted about two years after, that 
the number of his parishioners was 470 free-born, and that there were 
but few Dissenters among them ; but there were above seven hundred 
slaves, some of which understand the English tongue, but very few 
knew anything of Gon or Religion. The people were very sober and 



48 



. Humphrey's History of , J 



industrious; he had « full Ck>ngregation, and above thirty Copi> 
municants, and hail baptized several grown persons. Not long after, 
having some affairs in England, which required his presence, he returned 
from his Parish and continued here. This Parish is at present without 
a Missionary, but the Society have agreed to send one in a little time. 

10. The Church of St Andrew's is situate about thirteen miles 
distant from Charlestown, on the south side of Ashley river ; the Parish 
extends about twenty-one miles in length, and seven in breadth, and 
contains about one hundred and eighty families. The Reverend Mr. 
Wood was tlie first minister they had ; a very deserving man, as Mr. 
Chief Justice Trott acquainted the Society. He entered upon this cure 
in the year 1707, but died soon after : the Parish was long vacant. The 
Reverend Mr. Taylor was appointed Missionary there, in the year 1711 ; 
but there arose some contentious disputes at first, and afterwards an 
unhappy distaste between him and his parishioners, that he was 
desirous to be removed. lie accordingly removed to North Carolina 
with the Society's permission in 1717. About this time, the Reverend 
Mr. Mm, who, after the desolation of his Parish, (St. Helen's Port lioyal,) 
in the Indian War, had been sent mis^ioiiary to Narragansett, in New 
England ; returned, upon account of his health, to Carolina, and was 
soon after settled at St Andrew's, instead of Mr. Taylor. He made 
amends by his prudence and courteous demeanor, for the disobliging 
conduct of his predecessor. His former behavior had gained him the 
general esteem of the people in the country. The vestry of this Church 
therefore, upon his arrival, invited him to settle with them ; as he had no 
Parish, hie accepted of their very kind ofi'er ; and the society allowed of 
his being fixed there, upon the Vestry's request, joined to his own. He 
continued to perform his Ministerial Office with good diligence and suc- 
cess. This church was built of brick, about forty feet long, and twenty- 
five broad ; there was a burying place contiguous to it of about three 
acres. A small boarded parsonage house was built, about a mile dis- 
tant from the church, and twenty-six acres of Glebe Land bought for 
the minister ; but there hath been since made an addition of sixty acres 
of good land to tliis Glebe, about the year 1727. Mr. Guy was not on- 
ly careful in his own cure, but extended his labors to some other places 
remote, where he preached, administered the sacrament, and baptized 
several children, and some grown persons. He had such audiences gen- 
erally at the house where ho preached, that the people finding it too lit- 
tle to hold them, began to raise a subscription for building a church. 
The parish church in the year 1722, became too small to hold the con- 
gregation : the people therefore agreed to enlarge it, and presently sub- 
scribed £500. The commissioners appointed by the Vestry, agreed 
with workmen, and prepared materials for building ; and the general 
assembly of the province, the more to encourage them to go on, order- 
ed the public receiver to pay out of the treasury, the sum of £400, be- 
cause the subscription money of the Parish was not sufficient to defirsy 
the charges. 



Ther Propagation Society, ^. 



40 



The church, as now enlarffed, is in the form of a cross, begun in 
the year 1723, and since carried onby the contributions of the parish- 
ioners ; it is forty feet long, and fifty-two feet broad, with a hand- 
some chancel twelve feet long, and twenty-four feet wide, built of good 
brick, and the roof of cypress wood ; the roof of the old part was 
likewise pulled down, and built of cypress, well arched, ceiled and plas- 
tered, as is the new part The church is adorned and beautified, with 
neat cedar pews, a large east end window, and two others, one, on each 
side of the Communion Table, with more on each side of the body of 
the church, all neatly arched, and well glazed. A decent font is to be 
placed on a pedestal three steps high in a semi-circle, at the entrance 
of the church, and a galary is designed to be forthwith built at the 
west end, for tliose people who have no pews. Mr. Guy persuaded sev- 
eral persons who were neglectful of the offices of the church, to a more 
regular behavior, and baptized many grown persons ; and as the num- 
ber of his hearers considerably increas^, so also did the number of Uie 
constant comiiiunicants ; he continues now in this mission. 

11. The parish of St George was formerly a part of St Andrew's, 
and taken out of that by an Act of Assembly, in the year 1717. It is 
about nineteen miles long, and eight broad, consisting of five hundred 
En^ish, in one hundred and fifteen families, besides thirteen hundred 
negro slaves. The church is situate about nine miles from Gooscredc, 
eleven from St Andrews, and twenty-eight from Charlestown. By the 
Act of Assembly passed in the year 1717, for building this church, 
Alexander Skeene, Esq., Captain Walter Izard, Mr. Thomas Diston, 
Samuel Wragg, Esq., Captain John Canty, Mr. Thomas Warring, and 
Mr. Jacob Satur, were named Commissioners. These worthy gentle- 
men were very zealous to carry on this work. The allowance made by 
the Assembly of £333 being not sufficient for this purpose, they very 
earnestly promoted a subscription among the gentlemen of the countnr, 
and £1196 Carolina money was subscribed ; yet that proving too little, 
the public did, four years after, give £466 more, to defray the charge 
of the building. A church was begun to be built in the year 1719, 
and in the year following the out-work was completed ; it is a brick 
building fifty feet long, and thirty broad, besides the chancel. There 
is also a very good brick parsonage-bouso built, not half a mile distant 
from the church, situate on the very pleasant spot of ground near 
Ashley River, with a glebe of seventy-five acres of land. 

The Rev. Mr. Peter Tustian was appointed missionary here, by the 
Society, in the year 1719 ; but upon his arrival, he found the country 
so disordered with party divisions, that he soon removed to Maryland, i 

The Rev. Mr. Vamod succeeded him; he arrived there in 1723, and 
was very kindly received by his parishioners ; they were so well inclined 
to the Church of England Communion, that they constantly attended 
divine service, and so few absented themselves, that the church began 
soon to be too small for the congregation. A year after his arrivu at 
Christmas, he had more communicants than ever were known to meet 
at that place, near fifty persons, and what was still remarkable, seven- 

7 



Humphrey* t History of 



I Kli 



teen negroes. He baptized several grown persons, besides children and 
negroes, belonging to Alexander Skeene, Esq. Mr. Vamod extended 
his labors beyond his own pariah ; he sometimes used to preach at a 
neighboring French congregation, much to their edification. Uis own 
panahioners were also well satisfied with him. He continues still in 
his mission with good success. 

12. The parish of St. James Sante^ consists chiefly of French Refu- 
gees, conforming to the Church of England. It contains upwards of 
one hundred French families, and sixty English, besides free Indians 
and negro slaves. Their minister hath only the salary of the countiy 
and some occasional gratuities, the whole making but a very scanty 
support. The Kev. Mr. Philip de Richbourg was their first minister, 
and approved himself, in all respects, a worthy man ; upon his dying 
in 1710, the parish was a long time without a minister. In 1720, the 
Rev. Mr. Pouderous, a French clergyman, went over, and was fixed 
there by the Bishop of London ; but neither he, nor Mr. Richbourg, 
had any constant salary from the Society, though thev hive had several 
occasional gratuities. The people are religious and industrious, and 
very soon, in the year 1706, petitioned the Governor and General As- 
sembly, to have tneir settlement erected into a parish, and signified 
their being extremely desirous of being united to the body of the Church 
of England, whose doctrine and discipline they did most highly esteem ; 
and the Governor and Assembly did pass an Act, that year, erecting 
their settlement into a parish, fixing the Parochial Church at James- 
town, and setting forth its boundaries, which contained about eighteen 
miles in compass, but by a subsequent Act, they have been much en- 
larged : the Rev. Mr. Pouderous continues now their minister, very in- 
dustrious in his function. 

13. Prince George's Parish was erected in the northern parts of this 
Province, at a place called Wineaw, in the year 1725, when Francis 
Nicholson, Esq., was Governor of this Colony. There was a consider- 
able sum of money given, by Act of Assembly, for building a church 
here; and Governor Nicholson, to forward the work, gave £100 and 
the people contributed the rest This is a frontier place, so very far 
distant irom any Church, as the inhabitants have wrote to the Society, 
that they have lived many years without seeing any divine public 
worship performed, without having their children baptized, or the dead 
buried in any Christian order. The parish contains at present, above 
five hundred Christian souls, besides negroes and Indians, and the 
people were so zealous to have a minister of the Church of England, 
that they built a convenient chui-ch in the year 1726, and obtained of 
the country a salary of £100 proclamation money, and purchased two 
hundred acres of glebe land for their minister. Upon the repeated 
desires of the people here, the Society appointed the Rev. Mr. Morrit 
Missionary in 1728. 

14. The Church of St. Philip's in Charlestown, the Capital of the 
whole Province of Carolina, had a salary of £150 of that country 
money, settled on the minister, by Act of Assembly : the Society were 
in hopes this might be' a sufficient maintenance, and therefore did not 



The Propagation Society, 4«. 



51 



at fint allow anything to the minister. The Bishop of London (Dr. 
Compton) was very earnest to have a person of pruaenoe and experi- 
ence, to take the cure of this, the chief place in the Province, one who 
should act as his commissary, and have the inspection of Church mat- 
ters. The Rev. Mr. Gideon Johnston was recommended to the Bishop, 
in the year 1707, by the Archbishop of Dublin, by the Bishop of Ku- 
laloo, and the Bishop of Elphin, his diocesan in the fiillest manner. 
** His grace assured, he had known Mr. Johnston from a diild, and did 
testify, he had maintained a fair reputation, and was the son of a 
worthy Ciergrman in Ireland : that he dared answer for his sobriety, 
diligence, and ability, and doubted not, but he would execute his duty, 
so as to merit the approbation of all, with whom he should be concern- 
ed.** Bishop Compton was fiilly satisfied with this character ; sent him 
to Charlestown and made him nis Commissary. Mr. Johnston arrived 
in Carolina, after a long and tedious voyage, and was, unfortunately, 
near loosing his life, almost in sight of Charlestown. The bar of sand 
at the harbor's mouth, kept out the ship, in which he was passenger, 
till the next tide ; and Mr. Johnston bemg sick, was impatient to get 
ashore, went into a sloop with three other persons ; a sudden gust of 
wind rising, wrecked the sloop upon a sand bank; they lay there two 
days, before the boats and canoes, which were sent out, could discover 
them, almost perished with hunger and thirst. 

Mr. Johnston upon his entering on his cure found the people at Charies- 
town unhappily disturbed with feuds and animosities ; yet he managed 
himself witn so much temper and prudence, as to avoid giving any offense 
or incurring the displeasure of either side. What afflicted him most, was 
the ill habit of body, which, by various incidents in his voyage, and 
since his arrival iu the country, he had contracted. However, he strug- 
gled through every difficulty, discharged his duty with great diligence, 
and to the general satisfaction of his parishioners, though his cure, as 
being in Uie most populous place, was very laborious. He read prayers 
and preached twice on Sundays, read prayers on Wednesdays and 
Fridays, and frequently catechized the children. B^des the discharge 
of all his ministerial duties, he became useful and happy in composing, 
in some degree, the divisions among the people, and by a very modest 
and peaceable applying, persuaded many, who had differences, to con- 
verse without passion or bitterness. By these, and many other methods, 
he gained the respect and love of the best sort of people, of many 
parties. His parishioners knew his circumstances were strait, and that 
the country allowance was not sufficient to maintain him and his large 
family ; the Assembly being then sitting, they procured a clause to be 
made in one of the Acts then passed, adding £50 a year more to his 
Church, during his incumbency. This was a very special mark of their 
&vor to him, and the more so, because it was done without his using 
any public solicitation for it. He continued very assiduous in every 
branch of his office, until the year 1711, at which time, several pesti- 
lential diseases raged over all toe country, and occasioned a great mor- 
tality, especially at Charlestown ; notwithstanding these difficulties, he 



\\ 



as 



ii' ■ $ . 



Humphrey's History of 



discharged all the duties of his function, with unwearied diligence. 
He contracted by his labors many infirmities, which increased daily 
on him ; and he was forced to come to England for the recovery of his 
health. After staying here about a year and a half, he returned to his 
Church at Carolina, with an allowance of £50 a year salary from the 
society. He entered again upon the duties of his cure, with his former 
diligence and success, and continued so until April, in 1716. The 
Hon. Charles Craven, Esq., the Governor of the country, was then 
returning to England. Mr. Johnston, with thirty more gentlemen, 
went into a sloop to take their leave of him, then in the man of war, 
and under sail. They waited on the Governor and parted with him, 
but in their return back a storm arose, the sloop was overset, and Mr. 
Johnston being lame of the gout, and in the hold, was drowned ; the 
other gentlemen who were upon deck, partly by ^swimming, and partly 
by holding on the sloop, saved themselves, till help came. The sloop 
afterwards drove, and that, and Mr. Johnston's body, were found on 
the same bank of sand, on which he had almost perished, at his first 
coming to the country : he was buried at Charlestown, very much 
lamented by his parishioners, and especially all the clergy his brethren. 

15. The missionaries represented n^quently to the Society the great 
want of schools in this provinde, for the instruction of the children in 
the principles of Religion, and teaching convenient learning. Dr. Le 
Jeau at Gooscreek, did very earnestly press the Society to allow a salair 
for a schoolmaster in his parish, and they appointed Mr. Dennis school- 
master in the year IVIO ; he had a good number of scholars for several 
years, till the Indian war broke out, which dispersed the people and all 
liis scholars. The Society appointed also the Rev. Mr. Guy to be 
schoolmaster in Charlestown, in 1*711, and also Curate or assistant to 
the minister of Charlestown, because that cure seemed too laborious 
for one person. There is now a handsome schoolhouse built by Act of 
Assembly, and the schoolmaster allowed a salary of £100 proclamation 
money. Upon Mr. Guy's being removed to the cure of a parish, Mr. 
Morrit was fixed schoolmaster here ; but being lately chose minister of 
a parish, and leaving the school, the Society have appointed the Rev. 
Mr. Lambert schoolmaster and catechist or afternoon preacher there ; 
and accounts have been transmitted to the Society, that he discharges 
his duty with diligence, and hath been very useful in training up the 
youth. 

The people of the whole country are thoroughly sensible of the neces- 
sity of schools, for the Christian education of their children, and have, 
in several places, taken measures for founding of schools. An Act of 
Assembly was passed in the year 1724, for establishing of a free school 
in the town of Dorchester, in the parish of St George. Upon ''^is 
occasion some of the most considerable gentlemen of this colony, '• c( - 
to the Society, the chief source of irreligion and immorality hr 
the want of schools ; and we may justly be apprehensive, that if our 
children continue longer to be deprived of opportunities of being in- 
structed, Christianity will of course decay insensibly, and we shall have 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



08 



a generation of our own, as ignorant as the native Indians. This Act 
hath been transmitted to Great Britain for the royal assent. The 
people also of St. Paul's parish have lately raised a sum of mon^ by 
voluntary subscriptions, for founding a free school; and Mr. Whit- 
marsh of this parish, lately deceased, hath left £500 for this purpose ; 
they now have good hopes of raising a sufficient fund for building and 
endowing one. The Rev. Mr. LuUlam, lately the Society's Missionary 
at Gooscreek, bequeathed all his estate, which hath been computed to 
be about £2000 Carolina money, for building and endowing a school 
at Gooscreek. This Society, who are the Trustees appointed by his 
Will, hope to settle this school in a litt'e time. The late Richard Beres- 
ford, Esq., of St. Thomas's Parish, in this colony, has been a great 
promoter of the founding of schools. He died in March, 1'722, and 
by his Will bequeathed the annual profits of his estate, which was very 
considerable, in trust, to be paid to the vestry of that parish ; from the 
time of his decease, until his son, who was at that time about eight 
years of age, should arrive at the age of twenty-one years : directmg 
farther the vestry to apply one-third of the yearly profits of his estate, 
for the support of one or more schoolmasters ; who should teach reading, 
accounts, mathematics, and other liberal learning; and the remaining 
two-thirds, towards the support and maintenance of the children of the 
poor of that Parish, who should be sent to this school. The vestry of 
this Parish have since received from this estate £6500 Carolina money, 
and placed out £1200 of it in purchase of a plantation, about half a 
mile distant from the church, containing six hundred acres of land, with 
convenient buildings upon it, for the use of the designed school ; and 
placed out the remaining money at interest upon land security. 

It is now to be hoped this necessary work, of the education of the 
youth, will be carried on with success ; which the Society have always 
strove to the utmost of their power to promote ; they have not only help- 
ed towards maintenance of son) 3 schoolmasters, but have also, at times, 
sent large quantities of good books, as Bibles, Common Prayer Books, 
Whole Duties of Man, Catechisms, and other devotional books. The 
Society have sent to this province, above two thousand volumes, and 
above £300 worth of small tracts, not bound. 

16. I have now related the endeavors of the Society, towards settling 
religion in this colony ; which, however small in comparison of the 
great end sought for, have, notwithstanding, had important conse- 
quences. The zeal and bounty of this Society, hath raised a noble 
and truly Christian emulation in the inhabitants of this province to 
carry on so great and necessary a work. The example set by the So- 
ciety, hath influenced the people to contribute very bountifully to their 
own happiness, hath induced them, with great cheerfulness, to build 
churches, to assign stated salaries to the clergy, by Acts of Assembly, 
to allot glebes to the Churches, to open and to endow schools for the 
education of their children. Soon alter the foundation of this Society, 
an Act of Assembly passed in the year 1706, for establishing religious 
worship according to the Church of England ; for dividing the whole 



4 



It 



54 



Humphrey's History of 



province into ten parishes, (to which three have been since added,) for 
allowing a considerable sum for the building each church, and ordering 
one to be built in each Parish ; for incorporating the rectors or minis- 
ters; for allowing the ministers of the count^ Parishes £100 a year, 
current money of that province, each ; and the Rector of Charlestown 
JC150. All which Churches were soon after built, have been supplied 
with ministers by this Society, and have been faithfully paid their 
settled salaries by the country. And lately, in the year 1723, a farther 
law was passed for augmenting the ministers' salaries, and appointing 
them to be paid in proclamation money. The clergy were so sensible 
of this liberality of the people, that tbey did in the most grateful man- 
ner represent to the Society, that considering the circumstances of the 
colony, it was a very generous settlement. 

Thus through the pious liberality of the country, though there was 
scarce any face of the Church of England in this province, when this 
Society was first established, there have been thirteen Churches and 
four Chapels of Ease since built ; a free school hath been erected at 
Charlestown. The whole body of the people have had the advantage 
of the administration of God's Word and Sacraments, and such a 
light set up among them, as, it is to be hoped, no age shall see extin- 
guished. ' .' 






CHAPTER VI. 

Mi8si<yrMries sent to North Carolina. The Rev. Mr. Blair sent Mis- 
sionary, undergoes great hardships, returns to England. Other 
Missionaries sent thither ; they meet with many difficulties, return 
to England. The Tuscararo Indiana form a conspiracy against 
the English ; ravage the colony ; are at length defeated. Mr. 
Nevmam sent Missionary ; takes great pains in his Mission ; dies. 

1. The Society had a very early knowledge of the destitute condi- 
tion of this Province. The inhabitants, in the year 1702, amounted to 
above 6000 souls, chiefly English, besides slaves ; a great number of 
the people were desirous of having the Church of England Worship set- 
tled among them ; there were some Presbyterians, and fewer Quakers 
here, but many persons careless of all religion, and of a profane mind. 
However, some of the principal inhabitants did, in a very serious man- 
ner, and with a true Christian spirit, set forth their wants of a ministry 
to the Society. 

But the Society received the fullest information from the Reverend 
Mr. Blair, who had been an itinerant Missionary in that country, sup- 
ported with the bounty of £50 from the Lord Weymouth. He arrived 
in North Carolina in January, 1703, and entered upon the duties of his 
mission with great diligence and pains. The people were settled in 
such distant plantations on the several rivers' sides, that he was obliged 
to be continually traveling from place to place, which could not possi- 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



65 



bly be done without a guide, both on account of the badness of the 
roads, and difficulty to find them if once lost, as also by reason of the 
deserts between several plantations, some extending forty miles in 
length, without any inhabitant Besides, there was another exceeding 
inconvenience in traveling this country ; it was watered with seven great 
rivers, all without any bridges, over them ; two only which could be 
passed on horseback ; the others had ferries over them, in some places, 
and the passage there was chargeable. However, he exerted himself 
for some time, bought horses for himself and a guide, traveled over all 
the country, and preached twice every Lord's day, for above a year ; 
and sometimes on the week days, when the people could bring their 
children for baptism. He baptized above one hundred during his con- 
tinuance here. He was very useful to revive a sense of religion among 
them ; and the people, in pursuance of an act of Assembly there, be- 
gan to build three small churches. But he found the labor of contin- 
ual traveling in excessive heats in summer, and extreme colds in winter, 
beyond his strength of body and mind. He would have resided on 
one p-ednct of the country, and officiated to all who could come to 
him , hi, ♦VkC people were dissatisfied with this, telling him. Lord Wey- 
mout... i i '/ was intended for the good of the whole country. An 
Act of ' JcAy had been passed a little before, allowing £30 a year, 
of that country money, making about £10 sterling for a Minister in 
each division ; but that Act was not then confirmed by the Proprieta- 
ries, so that he had no allowance from the inhabitants. These hardships 
rendered the mission so difficult, that some time after, he was forced to 
return to England, quite sunk with poverty and sickness. 

2. This unprovided condition of the people, engaged the Society to 
assist them. In 1707, they sent over the Rev. Mr. Adams and Mr. 
Gordon, itinerant Missionaries, with a better support than Mr. Blair 
had. They were both very sensible they should meet with many dis- 
couragements in their mission ; however, they entered on their office 
with much resolution. Upon their first arrival, they entertained hopes 
of good success in their labors, from the encouragement which they 
received from some worthy persons in the administration of the gov- 
ernment at that time. But soon after their arrival, many ignorant and 
irreligious persons in the Colony, raised such factions and animosities, 
and above all, made such a blasphemous ridicule of the most sacred 
ordinances of the Gospel, in a manner too profane to bo mentioned, as 
occasioned long and public distractions, and mightily retarded the pro- 
gress of the Gospel. Mr. Adams and Mr. Gordon persevered, notwith- 
standing, in their missions. The whole Province was divided into four 
large precincts, Chowan, Paquiman, Pasquetanck, and Carotuck, be- 
sides Bath county, or Pamlico Division. 

Mr. Gordon had the care of Chowan and Paquiman. Chowan is the 
westermost, the largest and thinnest settled ; the people had built a 
Church sometime before his coming there, but it was small, and sorrily 
put together, and therefore they then had intentions to build another. 
There were very few Quakers or dissenters in this Parish. The people 



56 



Humphrey's History of 



indeed were ignorant, few that could read, and fewer write, even of the 
better sort ; yet the body of them were very serious and well-inclined, 
ready to embrace, both m public and in private, all opportunities of be- 
ins instructed. Mr. Gordon spent most of his labors in this precinct, 
it IS very larffe, and divided by the great Sound and several rivers, 
which made nis cure verv laborious ; however, he visited all parts of it, 
and baptised above one hundred children. Mr. Gordon had also the 
next precinct, Paquiman, under hr. care. There was a little compact 
churcn built here, with more care and expense, and better contrived 
than that in Chowan. The Quakers here were very numerous. This 
precinct is not so large as the other, but the roads are worse. The 
people were very ignorant, and loose in their lives, unconcerned as to 
religion, through men want of Ministers and good books. 

Mr. Gordon was in hopes the feuds and animosities among the peo* 
pie, would have abated in a little time, but on the contrary, they grew 
higher, and the public distractions increased. He found himself mere- 
fore necessitated to return to England ; which hedid,brineingwith him 
letters to the Lord Bishop of London, and to the Society, from the 
two precincts which he attended ; certifying that he had discharged 
his mission with great fidelity among them, and indefatigably employed 
his time in promoting the interest of religion in those parts. 

Mr. Adams had the care of Pascotanck and Carotuck precincts. 
Pascotanck precinct then had no Church built in it The roads here 
are the worst, but the country is closer settled, and better peopled than 
the other precincts. In their way of living, these people have much 
the advantage of the rest, being more industrious and careful. But 
they were above all, to be commended for their order, seriousness and 
decency, in attending Divine Worship. 

Carotuck is the eastermost precinct, including the Sand Banks, and 
part of the south part of the Sound ; a very incommodious place for 
damp colds in winter, and muschatoesin summer ; they had no Church 
built here. Mr. Adams behaved himself with unwearied application ; 
the extent of his mission was in some places above seventy miles. 
There were 839 souls in the precinct of Carotuck ; he preached often, 
baptised here numbers of children, and administered the Sacrament 
But the principal branch of his cure was the precinct of Pascotanck, 
where he chiefly resided. It contained above 1300 souls, 900 of which 
professed themselves members of the Church of England. He bap- 
tised in the Parishes of Pascotanck and Carotuck, above 214 children, 
besides grown persons, preached constantly, and administered the Sac- 
rament in Pascotanck and in Carotuck. 

When Mr. Gordon returned to England, Mr. Adams was much de- 
jected, but resolved to make a farther effort. He continued very dili- 
gent in the discharge of his duty. However, the public distractions 
could not be composed through the perverseness of some Quakers. 
During all these broils, Mr. Adams behaved himself with so much 
moderation and diligence, as gained the favor and esteem of the most 
sober people, and preserved his character unblemished, even by his en- 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



57 



and 



L 



etnies. The parties here grew of more imbittered spirits, and Mr. Ad- 
ams was quite wearied out with the hardships he met with : he in- 
tended to return to England in 1716, upon which the Vestry of Caro- 
tuck, and Col. Glover, wrote thus to the Society : 

" Mr. Adams, during his abode among us, hath behaved himself in 
all respects, worthy the character of a Minister, exemplary in his life, 
and blameless in his conversation ; and now being bound for England, 
we with sorrowful hearts, and true love and affection, take our l^ave of 
him. We shall ever bless that Providence that placed him among us, 
and should be very unjust to his character, if we did not give him the 
testimony of a pious and painful pastor, whose sweetness of temper, 
diligence in his calling, and soundness of doctrine, hath so much con- 
duced to promote the great end of his mission, that we hope the good 
seed God hath enabled him to sow, will bear fruit upwards." The 
Vestry of Pascotanck write to the same effect ; and Colonel Glover, 
President of the Council 'there, transmitted these letters to the Society, 
and wrote thus with them : " The inclosed papers being put into my 
hand, I held myself bound to present them to your Board, and to join 
with the subscribers in the character they justly give of the Rev. Mr. 
James Adams, and to which I am sure all persons, who have any re- 
spect to religion, do heartily concur. As for the diflSculties he met 
with, he hatli waded through them, under the vigilant eyes of the ma- 
licious enemy, without committing anything unbecoming a Minister of 
Christ." But before Mr. Adams embarked for England, he fell sick, 
and died in C^arolina. 

3. The Society resolved again to assist this people ; and appointed 
the Rev. Mr. Urmstone and Mr. Rainsford Missionaries there, about the 
year 1711. Mr. Urmstone took care of the North Shore, at the lower 
end of Chowan, with all Pascotanck ; and Mr. Rainsford of the West 
Shore. But they had not been long in the countiy, before the civil 
feuds among that unhappy people were followed with an Indian war, 
which threatened the total ruin of the Colony ; and had it not been 
for a very timely an^i powerful assistance from their neighbors, the South 
Carolinians, it might have been effected. The Ccees and Tuskararo 
Indians near Cape Fear, made a terrible insurrection, fell upon the in- 
habitants of Renoque, killed 137 of them ; mc-St of the Palatines, with 
a Swiss Baron, perished in the massacre. The Indians carried their 
plot on with great cunning and secrecy, and put it ihua in execution, 
m a few hours in many places. The Indians did not meet in one 
body ; but in small parties of five or six men, waited as friends on those 
whom they purposed to destroy ; and killed them with such weapons 
as they found in their houses, or near hand. The South Carolinians in 
this distress of theirs, advanced £4000 and sent Colonel Barnwell with 
600 whites and 600 Indians to their assistance ; after a difficult march 
he met the Indians, killed above three hundred, took one hundred pris- 
oners, surrounded the rest, being about six hundred in a Fort, and forced 
them to sue for peace ; which he granted, as not having provisions for 
his own men, if the Indians should have held out ; the other straggling 

8 



58 



Humphrey's History of 



parties of the Indians retreated into the territories of Fort Augustino, 
and lay there secure, under the Spaniards* protection. 

Mr. Urmstone, no doubt, could not avoid bearing a share in this sen- 
era! calamity ; however, he continued some years an itinerant Mission- 
ary. He traveled as soon as the heat of the summer was over, through 
the whole government one hundred miles southward, beyond Neuze 
River, sixty miles westward towards Virginia, and as far northeast He 
baptized in one half year two hundred and seventy-nine, twelve whereof 
were grown persons ; and had it not been for the neglect of the parents, 
and want of convenient passage both by land and water, a great many * 
more might have been baptized. Mr. Rainsford also continued some 
time preaching on the West Shore, and by his labors kept alive, among 
a wild and scattered people, some sense of religion ; but at length was ' 

?uite fatigued with the nardships of the mission, and quitted it Mr. 
Frmstone continued longer, but was in some years worn out with the 
many difficulties and distresses he met with, and returned to Eng- 
land. 

Colonel Eden, then Governor of the country, wrote a very pressing 
letter to the Society in behalf of the people. Some time after, the So- 
ciety appointed the Rev. Mr. Newnam Missionary ; he arrived in North 
Carolina in 1722, and transmitted to the Society an account of his la- 
bors and success in his mission. The summary of which is as follows : 
" After a long and fatiguing voyage of above four months, from De- 
cember the 1st to April the 10th, myself and little family arrived at 
Carolina. The late Governor Eden being dead, I waited upon the 
President, a worthy gentleman, delivered him my credentials, with 
which he declared himself satisfied, and received me with great kind- 
ness and respect. I hope I shall do a great deal of good. The Vestry 
have laid out my journeys where I am to officiate. The first Sunday I 
go by water, and some few miles by land, and preach at Esquire Duck- 
ingfield's House, (which is large enough to hold a good congregation,) 
till such time as they build a Church, which is hereafter to be called 
Society Church ; and in order to do it, they are now making a collec- 
tion through the whole Parish. The second Sunday I take a journey 
up to a place called Maharim, about forty miles ofi*, where there are 
abundance of inhabitants, who are also making a collection to build a 
Church forthwith. The third Sunday I perform Divine Service at 
Esquire Duckingfield's. The fourth Sunday I go up to a place called 
Wicacon, about thirty miles' journey. The fifth Sunday I cross the 
Sound to go to Eden town, where the Vestry have also proposed to 
build a Church very soon. The sixth Sunday I go up to a Chapel on 
the South Shore, about twelve miles by water ; and the sevepth Sunday 
begin the same course aguin. But once every quarter I go up to a 
place called Renoque, eighty miles' journey; and tne five last Sundays 
of the year, the Vestry allow I may go my rounds, and visit the re- 
mote parts of the country, where some inhabitants live, one hundred 
and fifty miles oflF ; people who will scarce ever have the opportunity 
of hearing me, or of having their children baptized, unless I go among 



V, . 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



59 



them. The country is in general very well pleased with my coming 
among them, but the people are for the most part poor and very ignor- 
ant. I have baptized one hundred and twenty boys and ninety-one 
girls, five persons above twenty years of age, and two married women, 
uiis last year." 

Upon bare reading of this letter, the reader will immediately reflect, 
that he must take indefatigable pains in performing so much difficult 
duty. However, he persevered with great resolution. Some time after- 
wanls other accounts came to the Society, that since his last letter, he 
had preached constantly, had baptized two hundred and sixty-nine 
children, one woman, and three men, who gave a very good account of 
their faith ; and two negroes, who could say the Creed, Lord's Prayer, 
and Ten Commandments, and had good sureties for their farther infor- 
mation ; and that he designed shortly to go to Bath county, where he 
was greatly wanted, being informed there were at least three hun- 
dred children, whose parents desired his coming among them, to have 
them baptizes. 

But having contracted frequent and severe illnesses by constant trav- 
eling, he died in the year 1*723, very much to the loss of all this people. 

6. In the year 1725, Sir Richard Everet, going then over Governor, 
the Rev. Mr. Blacknal applied to be sent Missionary, and was emploved 
by the Society, but they have had no account of his progress, and it is 
believed he hath left that country ; so that this whole people, being now 
above ten thousand souls, are without any Minister. What Gov. Eden 
remarked to the Society in favor of this colony, deserves to be taken notice 
of here : " Though the state of this Government hath been for many years 
very unsettled, chiefly so by reason of intestine feuds ; yet the people 
have declared themselves sincere members of the Church of England, 
by the Act of Assembly passed in 1715, for establishing the Church, 
and appointing select vestries; the preamble to which is as follows:" 
" This Province of North Carolina, being a member of che Kingdom of 
Great Britain ; and the Church of England being appointed by the 
Charter from the Crown, to be the only established Church, to have 
public encouragement in it : We therefore to express our gratitude to the 
Right Honorable the Society for Promoting the Christian Religion in 
Foreign Parts, and our zeal for promoting our holy religion by 
making such provision for building Churches and Chapels, and main- 
taining of the Clergy, as circumstances of this Government will admit, 
&c And by this Act, they divide the whole country into nine parishes, 
name vestries, and settle salaries for the Ministers of each parish, not 
exceeding £50, and provided the whole parish charges do not exceed 
five shiUings per pole, on all taxable persons." 

This speaks at least the good disposition of the people, though the 
£50 settled by the Act, would amount to a very small sum in sterling 
money. There are not above one or two Churches yet built in this 
Government ; however, the Society have at several times by their Mis- 
sionaries dispersed here above three hundred volumes of bound books, 
besides about £100 worth of small Tracts of devotion and instruction. 



60 



Humphrey's History of 



'i"M^ 



CHAPTER VL 

Pennsylvania settled at first hy Swedes and Dutch ; a very consider- 
able number of Quakers go over from England thither. The Rev. 
Mr. Evans sent to Philadelphia by Bishop Compton. A very large 
Congregation at Philadelphia. Several Missionaries sent to Penn- 
sylvania. Their labors and success. Fifteen Churches built in this 
Colony by voluntary contributions. No salaries settled on the Min- 
isters, but tJie people contribute liberally towards their support. 

1 . Pennsylvania, with the three lower Counties, extends in length near 
three hundred miles, and in breadth above two hundred, watered with 
that noble stream the Delaware, navigable three hundred miles at least, in 
small vessels. It was settled by people of several European nations, by 
Swedes and some Dutch at first, afterwards by the English and French. 
The first English settlers here were Quakers, above tw(f^ thousand of 
which, went over from England at once, with Mr. Pen the proprietbiy ; 
but since that time, great numbers of persons of other principles in re- 
ligion, have settled themselves there ; not to avoid any violence at home, 
but to improve their fortunes in those parts. The English were much 
the most numerous inhabitants, and Quakerism the prevailing opinion. 
Mr. George Keith, who resided here, says, according to the best compu- 
tation he could make, above one thousand five hundred men and wo- 
men Quakers, used to come to their yearly meetings, at Philadelphia, 
from the adjoining country, and from E^t and West Jersies, in the 
year 1689. 

But soon afler, in the year 1691, there arose a breach between a 
party of Quakers, who joined with Mr. Keith, in opposing some of 
their errors, (especially their notion of the su£Bciency of the light with- 
in every man to salvation, without anything else,) and another party 
that joined with Mr. Thomas Lloyd, then Deputy Governor of the coun- 
try, and a great preacher among the Quakers. Upon this breach, all 
the meetings in these Provinces were broken, and each party sat up 
separate meetings, upon account of such different principles in religion, 
and especially with regard to that notion, of the sufficiency of the light 
within every man. One party, called the Keithian Quakers, judged 
this a tacit rejection of the written word of God, and of the Sacraments, 
and tending, at least, to set up Deism. They divided therefore from the 
Foxian Quakers, and in the year 1694, there were fifteen meetings of 
these separatist Quakers, in Pennsylvania and the Jersies. 

The Swedes and Dutch settled in this Province, had some Ministers 
among them, but the English had none, till the year 1*700; when the 
Rev. Mr. Evans was sent over to Philadelphia by Bishop Compton. 
But after the Church of England service began to be performed, a very 
numerous congregation attended the public worship, consisting chiefly 
of great numbers of persons, who a few years before, had separated 
from the Foxian Quakers, and now joined entirely with the Church of 
England members. They increased so fast, that in two years' time there 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



ei 



"V 



were above five hundred persona who frequented the Church. Thev 

Gititioned his late Majesty King William, for some stipend for their 
inister; and his Majesty was pleased to allow £50 sterling to their 
Minister, and £30 to a schoolmaster, at Philadelphia. The people 
have several times made application for some salary to their Mmister 
from this Society ; but never had any : because there were many poor- 
er settlements in this countiy, which claimed the Society's help. 
' 2. The Rev. Mr. Evans bemg thus supported by the royal bounty, and 
the liberal contributions of his hearers, was very diligent in the dis- 
charge of his duty, and through God's blessing very successful. A great 
number of persons of various opinions, not only in Philadelphia, the 
metropolis of this country, but of the adjacent parts, began to see their 
errors, and embrace the Church of England worship. The frequent re- 
sort of people of the better condition, from all the remote parta of the 
country, to that capital town, gave them an opportunity of hearing Mr. 
Evans and being informed in the doctrines of the Church of England. 
A hear(;y love and zeal for religion spread so wide, that there arose 
soon, several congregations, in other parts of the country ; Mr. Evans 
was forced to divide his labors among them, as often as he conveniently 
could, till tb'' might be formed into proper districts, and have Minis- 
ters sent over to them. 

He went frequently to Chichester, Chester, and Concord, to Mont- 
gomery and Radnor, each about twenty miles' distant from Philadelphia ; ~ 
and to Maidenhead in West Jersey, forty miles' distant. This traveling 
was both fatiguing and expensive, yet he frequently visited these places, 
being determined by all means, to lose none of those he had gained. 
But Montgomery and Radnor, next to Philadelphia, had the most con- 
siderable share in his labors. 

Mr. Evans used to preach two evening Lectures at Philadelphia, one 
preparatory to the Holy Sacrament, on the last Sunday of the month ; 
the other to a Society of young men, who met together every Lord's 
Day, after evening Prayer, to read the Scripture, and sing Psalms; Mr. 
Evans was always present at these meetings, unless hindered by some 
public service, and used to read some select Prayers out of the Church 
Liturgy, and preached upon subjects suitable to an audience of young 
men. There arose an unforeseen advantage from these Lectures, for not 
only the young men who designedly met, were improved ; but a great 
many young persons, who dared not appear in the day time, at the 
public service of the Church, for fear of disobliging their parents or 
masters, would stand under the Church windows at night and hearken. 
At length, many of them took up a resolution to leave the sects they 
had followed, desired Baptism, and became steadfast in the Commun- 
ion of the Church. Several accounts from Mr. Keith and Mr. Talbot 
acquaint that Mr. Evans baptized in Philadelphia, and the adjoining parts, 
above eight hundred persons. The Welch people of Radnor and Mont- 
gomery stirred up by his preaching, addressed the Bishop of London 
ror a Minister, who understood their language ; representing, that a 
very considerable number of Welch people in those towns, and 
neighboring parts, who had been bred up members of the Church of 



IH 



■4 



m 






it Humphrey'a History of 

England, were here unhappily fallen into Quakerism, for want of a 
Minister ; as being disposed to follow that, rather than to have no form 
of religion, and who were ready to return back to the Church of 
England. 

In the year 1707, Mr. Evans came to England upon private con- 
cerns ; during his absence, the^ Rev. Mr. Rudman, a wortnv Swedish 
clergyman, vmo had officiated among his countrymen in those parts 
for several years, took care of his cure at Philadelphia. Mr. Evans re- 
turned to Philadelphia, and continued as before very diligent in his 
duty. He used to preach sometimes at Hopewell in West Jersey, forty 
miles' distant from Philadelphia, where the people were exceedingly de- 
sirous of having the Church of England worship settled ; and only upon 
hopes of obtaining a Missionanr from the Society, had with considera- 
ble expense, built a Church. He visited also Apoquinomv, sixty-five 
miles' distant from Philadelphia ; and a new settlement called Farkeo- 
men, situate on the river Schoolkill ; he baptized many persons here, 
particularly a whole family of Quakers, to the number of fifteen. He 
afterwards returned to England upon account of some family concerns. 

In the year 1716, Mr. Evans resolved to go once more aoroad, and 
the cure of Oxford and Radnor, Welch settlements, being then vacant, 
the Society appointed hiip Missionary there. He undertook that cure 
for two years, and discharged it with diligence, to the great advantage of 
the people, and much to his own credit He was afterwards invited to 
Maryland, to a Parish there, but soon after died ; with this general 
character, that he had behaved himself as a faithful Missionary, and had 
proved a great instrument towards settling religion and the Church of 
l^gland in those wild countries. 

3. The people of Chester county showed a very early zeal to have 
the Church of England worship settled among them. This county is 
so called, because most of the first inhabitants of it came from Chesh- 
ire, in England. Chester, the chief town of the county, is finely 
situate on Uie River Delaware, at that place, three miles over ; the road 
for shipping here is very commodious and safe, and so large that a royal 
navy nught ride there. The people here were stirred up by Mr. Evan's 
preaching, to engage in building a Church. They erected a very good 
brick fabric, one of the neatest on the Continent, and completed it in 
July, 1702, at the sole expense of private subscriptions of the Church 
members ; it was opened on St Paul's day, and was therefore called St 
Paul's, and Mr. Geo. Keith preached the mrst sermon in it The Society 
appointed the Rev. Mr.Nicholls Missionary in 1703 ; he acquainted the 
Society in 1 704, that he found the people very well inclined to the Church 
of EIngland, and recommended them earnestly to the Society's care, on ac- 
count of their good disposition, though they had not any fixed Minister, 
till now. The people made a subscription of £60 a year towards Mr. 
NichoUs' support, and became very regular and constant at divine wor- 
ship. Mr. NichoUs said he did not want a considerable congregation 
at his firat arrival, notwithstanding his being seated in the midst of 
Quakers, and ascribes this advantage to the mdustrious preaching of 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



68 



the Society^s itinerant Misaionaries, the Rev. Mr. Keith and Mr. Talbot, 
who had prepared the people very much, by their labors. 

Mr. Jasper Yeates and Mr. James Sandelands, two worthy gentle- 
men of this place, deserve particular mention here ; they were the prin- 
cipal promoters of the building of this Church ; Mr. Thomas Powell 
gave also a valuable piece of ground for the Minister's garden, the 
parishioners contributed the rest ; and as soon as the outside was com- 
pleted, the inside was beautified, mostly at the expense of those who 
mquented it; and adorned with decent furniture, a handsome pulpit 
and pews. Mr. Nicholls continued here with good success in his labors, 
till about 1Y08, at which lime he removed to Maryland. The Rev. Mr. 
Ross came from Newcastle, and officiated here upon the people's de- 
sire. He was very industrious in his Ministry, and acceptable to the 
people. He moved the Society to send some good books here, to pre- 
vent the people's continuing in unsettled notions of religion ; and said, 
he was much concerned, to observe in his travels up and down the 
county, that there were variety of books sent and placed in almost 
every Quaker family, especially Barclay's Apology, to fortify the peo- 
ple in their errors, -and furnish them with arguments against th^ faith ; 
whereas in the houses of the Church people, few or no books were to 
be seen. Upon which the Society have since sent quantities of Bibles, 
Common Prayers, and devotional Tracts, to be dispersed among the peo- 
ple. However, the Society did not continue Mr. Ross at Chester, 
though he behaved himself entirely to their satisfaction, but directed him 
to remove to Newcastle, where he was first appointed ; and sent to 
Chester, the Rev. Mr. Humphreys their Missionary. He used great 
diligence in the serving all parts of his cure, and gained the love and 
esteem of his parishioners. There were at that time but very few Mis- 
sionaries in that Province, and being obliged to divide Uiemselves 
among eleven or twelve congregations, they had more than employ 
sufficient. The Church at Chester continued in a flourishing condition 
during Mr. Humphrey's residence. He used to preach once a month at 
Chichester, a town of note, where the people had built a convenient 
Chapel, upon his persuasion and promise to attend them once a month. 
It is distant four miles from Chester, and there is a legacy left by Mr. 
Jeremiah Collet to the Minister of Chester, to preach four times a year 
there. This Chapel is very convenient for aged people, youths and 
servants, (who cannot go so far as to Chester,) to come to hear divine 
service. Mr. Humphreys had a congregation, geneiHy, of about one 
hundred and fifty people. He used also once a month to visit the 
small neighboring town. Concord, where he had a good number of 
people for his hearers ; who have since, for the more decent performing 
divine worship, built a little Church. Mr. Humphreys continued very 
diligent in the care of these three places ; but by reason of the fatigue 
of visiting several congregations, contracted many indispositions and 
severe sicknesses, which engaged him in heavier expenses, than the 
Society's salary and people's contributions would support He was in- 
vited to Maryland by some friends, where he could have a better pro- 
vision, which he accepted ; not only with tlio Society's leave, but also 



; 



64 



Humphrey'i History of 



with an allowance of a gratuity of £30 beyond his salary ; on account 
of the hardships he suffered in his mission, and of his good behavior 
during his being employed. These three Churches are now without a 
Minister, but the Society have agreed to send them a Missionary as soon 
as conveniently may bo. 

4. Oxford and Radnor, two Welch settlements, were first visited by 
Mr. Evans from Philadelphia, and the people having been members of 
the Church of England, when they were transplanted from Wales hith- 
er, were desirous of having that form of worship fixed among them 
again. By his occasional Sermons, and the visits of other Clergymen, 
the people of Oxford were encouraged to build a neat and convenient 
Church. The congregation consisted chiefly of the younger people, 
and the whole town composed of about twenty families; they not 
only built a Church, but suoscribed also £20 a year to their Minidter, 
in money and country produce. The people of Kadnor also petitioned 
for a Minister ; and the Society appointed the Rev. Mr. Club Missionary 
to Oxford and Radnor, two towns, being about twenty miles* distant 
from each other. He arrived there in 1714. The inhabitants of both 
towns teceived him with great kindness, as being well known to them 
before, during his being schoolmaster at Philadelphia. The people at 
Radnor, especially, were very thankful to the Society for having been 
pleased to consider their wants, and renewed th^ir promise of giving 
nim their best assistance, and presently after his arrival, heartily engaged 
to build a handsome stone Church, which they have since performed. Mr. 
Club was very earnest in all parts of his Ministerial office, and very 
successful in his labors, and happy in engaging the love and esteem of 
all his people. But the cure of these two Churches engaged him in 
great fatigue, not only on account of the distance between the places, 
out because of the extremity of the weather, whether hot or cold. Mr. 
Club contracted so many indispositions by his labors, as put an end to 
his life, in 1716. The people were so sensible of the difficulties he un- 
derwent, that after his death, the Church-wardens of the Parish wrote 
thus to the Society : " Mr. Club, our late Minister, was the first that un- 
dertook the cure of Oxford and Radnor, and he paid dear for it ; for 
the great fatigue of riding between the two Churches, in such dismal 
ways and weather as we generally have for four months in the winter, 
soon put a period to his life." 

Both towns wrote again to the Society, requesting another Missionary ; 
the Society wrotPa letter, exhorting them to consider on some proper 
means among themselves for making sufficient allowance for a Minister 
to reside constantly among them. In answer to this they assured the 
Society, " They were heartily disposed to do their best; but at present ^ 
their circumstances would not do great things. They were at present 
but poor settlers, who had newly settled lands backwards in the wilder- 
ness, and had not yet so much as their own habitations free from debts ; 
that indeed they had built Churches, in hopes of having Ministers from 
the Society ; and had thereby so much incumbered themselves, that it 
would be some years, in all probability, before they could clear that debt." 



' The Propagation Society, 4^. M 

The Society were desirous this good disposition of the people should 
not be disappointed ; and in 1718, appointed the Rev. Mr. Wyman 
their Missionary at Oxford and Radnor. He entered upon his Ministry 
among them with diligence, and the people continued their zeal for the 
Ohurcn service. The inhabitants uf Oxford imrcbased a house, orchard, 
and sixty-three acres of land, for the use and habitation of the Minister; 
and the people of Radnor have obliged themselves to contribute £40 
proclamation money, of that country, yearly, towanls the support of a 
minister to preach to them in Welch, their native language ; because 
many of them do not understand English. Several accounts have been 
sent the Society, that Mr. Wayman is very careful in all parts of his 
duty ; and thai he extends his labors to several other places, 4n the 
week-days, when he can be spared from his own immediate charge ; 

ftarticularly that he hath often traveled to Conestego, about forty miles 
•eyond Radnor, and baptized there and elsewhere above seventy chil- 
dren in one year. Mr. Wayman hath acauainted the Society, that the 
members of the Church increase continually ; that there is a congrega- 
tion at Whitemarsh, about ten miles distant from Oxford, who ^re very 
desirous of a Minister, and have for the decent performance of divine 
worship, erected a goodly stone building. Mr. Wayman continues in 
this mission, with good success. 

5. The inhabitants of Apoquiminy were so zealous as to build a con- 
venient Church, about the year 1705, long before they had any settled 
minister. They used to be sometimes visited by the Reverend Mr. 
Seward from Maryland, and by Mr. Crawford, the Society Missionary in 
Dover Hundred. They applied to the Society for a missionary, and the 
Reverend Mr. Jenkins was appointed to that place ; upon his arrival, 
he found the people much scattered in their settlements, and Newcastle 
Town, which was then vacant, being settled closer and more commo- 
dious, he officiated there for some time at first; but soon after, by di- 
rections from the Society, returned to his owa cure of Apoquiminy. 
However, during his stay at Newcastle, he was not neglectful of his 
duty. At his return to Apoquiminy, in 1708, he soon drew together a 
large congregation of about two hundred persons, who were, for the 
most part, very constant hearers. He had thirteen communicants the 
first time he administered the Lord's Supper. He wrote to the Society, 
"That the people grew so earnest in religion, that above twenty per- 
sons had discoursed with him, in order for their due instruction, and 
were preparing themselves against the next administration of the Lord's 
Supper ; and also, that a great many grown persons were preparing 
to receive holy Baptism, and that he hoped soon to be able to send 
over a joyful account of his farther success in his labors." But five 
months after, he died ; and was exceedingly regretted by all, who 
were acquainted with his merit, and especially by his parishioners. 
The Vestry of his Parish wrote thus concerning him to the Society, 
" He died to our unspeakable grief and loss ; and we must do that jus- 
tice to his memory, as to assure the honorable Society, that he behaved 





\\ 



Humphrey's History of 

himself in all respects, both as to his doctrine and life, as became the 
sacred character he bore ; and Ood did so bless his labors here, that 
before he died, he saw our Church in a flourishing condition." They 
conclude their letter, praying the Society to send them another mis- 
sionary. 

The Society did not send a missionary thither for considerable time, 
on account of being engaged to support other missions, to the extent 
of their fund ; however, the people were not quite destitute ; they were 
occasionally visited by the Reverend Mr. Byork, a Swedish minister, 
who came from Christina Creek on Delaware River, to perfom Divine 
Service once a month. They were visited also by the Reverend Mr. 
Club,' but oftener by Mr. Ross from Newcastle, and by some other mis- 
sionaries. But the Clergy there, in the year 1715, with much earnest- 
ness represented to the Society, that the state of several places in that 
province was deplorable. Many Churches, which were once filled with 
considerable numbers of communicants, whose early zeal had led them, 
though poor, to erect those decent structures for the service of God, 
and at some of them to build commodious houses for the reception of 
their ministers, were, through a long vacancy, by death or removal of 
the missionaries, quite desolate ; and great opportunities were given, 
for the sincere members of the Church, to be seduced to errors ; espe- 
cially the people of Apoquiminy,' and of all Bucks, Kent, and Sussex 
counties. They assured they had done the utmost they could, in their 
circumstances, to keep those congregations together; by dividing the 
care of them among themselves, and visiting them sometimes on 
week days, and baptizing their children, and instructing their youth ; 
but the great distance from their fixed cures, rendered t^e service out 
of measure difScult. 

The Society, moved with this representation, sent the Reverend Mr. 
Merry missionary to Apoquiminy ; but upon account of some difficul- 
ties in the mission, he did not settle there, but after a short stay in 
those parts, returned to England. The Reverend Mr. Campbell was 
afterwards sent missionary, but he is gone from this mission to Brook- 
haven. And the Society have, this last year, appointed the Reverend 
Mr. Hacket Missionary hither, and conceive good hopes, from the very 
ample testimonials he brought them of his good behavior, that he will 
answer the intent of his mission. 

6. Newcastle, the capital of the county of that name, is finely seated, 
standing high, upon the Delaware ; this county is the uppermost of 
the three lower, Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, which run one hundred 
and twenty miles along the coast, and are about thirty miles deep to- 
wards Maryland. These counties comprehend all the marshes on the 
great Bay of the Delaware, as commodious and fertile as any in the 
world. The town was first built and inhabited by the Dutch, and call- 
ed Amstel, from that river which gives a name to Amsterdam in Hol- 
land. It is a large place, containing above two thousand five hundred 
Bouls. The Reverend Mr. George Ross was appointed missionary hith- 



The Propagation Society, dfc. 



m 



ill 



seated, 
nost of 
undred 
eep to- 
on the 
in the 
d call- 
Hol- 
indred 
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er by the Society, in the year 1105. He was received with great kind- 
ness by the inhabitants, and had a very regular congregation ; not only 
the people of the town, but a considerable number of country people ; 
though they lived a good way off the town, some above twelve miles, 
yet they seldom missed coming to Church, when there was no sermon 
in the country. The congregation hath continued still increasing 
through Mr. Ross's assiduous care ; he extended his labors farther, to 
the Churches at Apoquiminy, and at Whiteclay Creek ; the latter in- 
deed, is reckoned as a Chapel of Ease to his own Church, the other a 
distinct cure. When Apoquiminy had no missionary, he used to preach 
on two Sundays at Newcastle, once a month at Apoquiminy, and once 
at Whiteclay Creek. This truly was very painful service, but he per- 
formed it with a willing mind and good success. Sometimes, however, 
he did represent to the Society, that the people at Newcastle seemed 
to lay claim to all his service, and to take it somewhat amiss when he 
was employed abroad on Sundays ; and adds, I would not willingly 
disoblige them, nor yet see, if I could help it, the Church at Apoqui- 
miny, which is as frequent as that at Newcastle, quite destitute and for- 
saken. Indeed the people at Newcastle have, from the beginning, 
showed a due regard to their worthy minister, and subscribed volunta- 
rily to him, about forty-eight pounds per annum, and some other bene- 
factions have been made to the Church. Particularly Mr. Richard Hal- 
Hwell, a gentleman of piety and honor, made a bequest as follows : 
Item, I give and bequeath unto Emanuel Church, standing upon the 
Green, in the town of Newcastle, the sura of sixty pounds, it being 
due to me, over and above my subscription, toward building thereof. 
Item, I also give and bequeath all my Marsh and Plantation, situate 
near the broad dyke of the town of Burlington, containing and laid out 
for sixty-seven acres of land and marsh, together with all the houses 
and orchards, and other improvements, to the proper use and behoof of 
the minister, that froia time to time shall serve the said Emanuel 
Church forever. This so signal a benefaction, by a gentleman who 
had in his lifetime, so generously contributed towards building this 
Church, deserves a grateful record in these papers. St. James' Church 
at Whiteclay Creek, is the other branch of Mr. Ross's cure. The 
fi-ame of this Church was raised in December, 1716, situate about ten 
or eleven miles from the town of Newcastle. It is made of wood, in 
length thirty-two feet, in breadth twenty-two, and stands upon a rising 
ground not far'from that creek, whence the Hundred where the Church 
stands, borrows its name. It is as fair an oratory as any not built of 
brick, in that government ; but the rise of this Church may more pe- 
culiarly be ascribed to a worthy gentleman, Mr. James Robinson, who 
lived there, and took great pains to promote the building, contribu- 
ting himself very handsomely, and afterwards endowed it with ten acres 
of Glebe land forever. Mr. Ross hath continued in this mission until 
the present time, irreprovable in his conduct, and very diligent in his 
labors ; which he hath not employed in his own parish, but in several 



' r 



t\ 



68 



Humphrey's History of 



other places occasionally, and very much to the satisfaction of the peo- 
ple where he officiated. He hath been particularly serviceable in visit- 
ing the congregations in the two lower counties of Kent and Sussex, 
when they had no resident ministers. A little lower I shall give some 
account of his labors in those places. 

Y. The two lower counties of Pennsylvania, Kent and Sussex, had 
very early care taken of them by the Society. The country is very 
fruitful, but not so well planted as others. The families are not settled 
together in towns, but live in scattered Plantations. There are in these 
counties many tracts of excellent land, which tempt the inhabitants to 
fix in such separate dwellings. Dover is the capital of Kent coun- 
ty ; but very thin of houses, containing not above forty families. 
The people showed a very earnest desire of having the Church of Eng- 
land worship set up among them, and the Society appointed the Rev- 
erend Mr. Crawford to be missionary at Dover, in the year 1704; he 
entered upon his ministry with good success, and gained from persons 
of repute, the character of an ingenious and acceptable man. The people 
began soon to bo zealous to build a Church for divine worship, and 
in about three years raised a very decent fabric. Soon after Mr. Craw- 
ford's coming among them, not only the masters of families brought their 
children to be baptized, but many grown persons, who once had pre- 
judices to the Church, desired and received baptism ; in about two 
years' time Mr. Crawford baptized above two hundred and thirty, young 
and old, in his own appointed cure, besides many others in places 
which were not within his charge. He was very constant in his labors, 
and did not confine them to Dover town, and the adjacent parts, but 
preached up and down the county, which is about fifty miles long, at 
several places. His general audience was from fifty to near two hun- 
dred persons, and he ordinarily had between thirty and forty commu- 
nicants. The people at his firet coming among them were very igno- 
rant ; insomuch tliat he informs, not one man in the county understood 
how the Common-Prayer Book was to be read ; and he was forced to 
instruct them privately at home, in the method of reading the Liturgy : 
for the more general instruction of the people, he used to preach one 
Sunday at the upper end of the county, another at Dover Church, and 
a third at the lower end of the county. He used to catechise the 
children all the summer long, before sermon, but not in the winter. The 
people improved much, became serious and grave in their behavior at 
Church, and brought their children very regular for baptism ; though 
a great many of them were Quakere' children, or had been Quakers 
themselves. He was also invited by the people of Sussex county, to 
come and preach among them, which he did at Captain Hill's house in 
Lewis town, and at other places. The people of this county also, were 
of a religious disposition. They soon after wrote a letter to the 
Bishop of London, desiring a minister, and promising to allow him all 
their present circumstances would permit ; and farther, to show their 
hearty zeal, they began to build a Church, which they have since fin- 



The Propagation Society, ^'C. 



60 



ished, and have, by many other instances, inproved themselves a wor- 
thy peO|-lc. Mr. Crawford acquainted the liociety, that Hibles, Com- 
mon-Prayer Books, and books of instruction and devotion, were much 
wanted ; for there were about two hundred persons who attended tho 
public worship, who had none and made application to him for some ; 
because there were but few to be purchased there, and those which could 
be got, were too dear for them to purchase. The Society sent a quan- 
tity of Bibles and Common-Prayers to be distributed, but Mr. Craw- 
ford came to England soon after, upon some family afl'uirs, and contin- 
ued here. 

Upon this account the people of these two large counties continued 
some years without a resident minister. However, in the mean time, 
they had the advantage of some visits from the Society's missionaries, 
especially from the Rev. Mr. Ross, as I observed above. In August, 
1717, Colonel William Keith, the Governor, resolving to visit the lower 
counties, the Reverend Mr. Ross, Missionary at Newcastle, was invited 
by the Governor to accompany him. Mr. Ross very readily embraced 
this kind invitation ; hoping by this opportunity, to make himself ac- 
quainted with the state of the Church there, and in some measure sup- 
ply its present wants by his ministry. lie embarked with the Gover- 
nor and several other gentlemen at Newcastle, and set sail for Lewis 
town in Sussex county, which lies upon one of the Capes of the river 
Delaware, and in two days arrived there. On the 7th of August he 
preached before the Governor and Justices of the county, in the Court- 
house of the county, and had a very numerous audience of the people, 
who appeared very serious, and desirous of the Sacraments of the 
Church, and he baptized that day thirty children which were brought 
to him. On the 9th day of the same month, Mr. Ross preached again 
before the Governor and other gentlemen, had a large audience of the 
people, and baptized twenty-one children. On the 10th, the Governor 
left this place, in order to go to Kent county. Mr. Ross sat out before 
him to a place of worship about sixteen miles from Lewis town ; it is 
a small building, erected by a few well-disposed persons, in order to 
meet together there to worship God. Mr. Ross preached once here, 
and baptized twenty-five children, and several giown persons. On the 
Sunday following, August 11th, he preached to a large congregation 
in the upper parts of this country, where the people had erected a fab- 
ric for a Church, which was not quite finished. Here he baptized twen- 
ty-six children ; so that the whole number of the baptized in one 
week's stay among his people, amounted to one hundred and two. Mr. 
Ross observes thus to the Society : *' by this behavior of the people, it 
appears plainly, they are truly zealous for the Church of England, 
though they have had but few instructions from some clergymen pass- 
ing through these parts, and some visits from the Reverend Mr. Adams 
in Maryland. As the Governor returned home through Kent county, 
Mr. Ross attended him, and preached before him and the magistrates, 
on the 14th of August; he had a very full congregation, and baptized 
thirteen children, and one grown person. In April following Mr. Robs 



t\ 



Humphrey's History of 

resolved to make a second visit by himself, to the people of Sussex coun- 
ty ; he was so much pleased with his fonner success among them, that 
he was desirous to improve farther the good disposition of the people. 
He went to Sussex county ; continued there six days, preached on every 
one of them at different places, and baptized above one hundred per- 
sons, seven of whom were of an advanced age. Lastly, he opened 
there a new Church which the poor people had built, notwithstanding 
80 great a discouragement as their having no minister. 

Mr. Ross sent this account of his labors in these two counties, to 
the Society, in form of a journal, and the missionaries of this Colony 
made full representation of the state of the Church in those parts. 
The governor was farther pleased to write a letter to the Society, and to 
transmit several applications made to him by the Clergy, relating to 
Church affairs, and a copy of the abovenamed journal of Mr. Ross. 
His letter runs thus : " According to my duty, I presume to lay before 
you, the applications of your missionaries, the clergy of this province and 
neighborhood, to me, relating to the Church here ; as also a copy of 
the Reverend Mr. George Ross's journal of his services done in the 
counties of Kent and Sussex. It is great satisfaction to me, that I can 
assure the vo'-ierable Board, of the great pains and diligent care, which 
the Reverend gentlemen within named, take, in all parts of their min- 
isterial function ; and herein I cannot, but in justice, particularly re- 
commend Mr. Ross's capacity, pious and exemplary life, and great 
industry, to your favorable notice and regard. But I must observe, 
that the duty here daily increases at such a rate, and the laborers are so 
few, that without your pious and immediate care, to relieve and supply 
this languishing, but valuable branch of the Church, all our endeavors 
will be to no purpose." 

The Society were very much affected with these representations of 
the clergy, and especially with the Governor's letter ; and resolved that 
a missionary should be sent to Sussex county ; and soon after appointed 
the Reverend Mr. Beckett missionary at Lewis town. 

8. Lewis, the capital of Sussex county, is a handsome, large town, 
standing on the lovely bank of a river, between the town and the sea, 
which makes the harbor; about one hundred and forty miles distant 
from Philadelphia. Mr. Beckett arrived here in 1 72 1 , and entered upon 
the duties of his mission with great diligence ; he was obliged to divide 
his labors between three places. He resided at Lewis, but officiated alter- 
nately at one place, eight miles distant, and at another, twenty-five miles 
distant from Lewis. He had a considerable number of inhabitants at- 
tending divine service at both places ; and in half a year after his ar- 
rival, he baptized fifty-five persons, nine of which were of a grown 
age. His private admonitions and preaching had soon a good effect on 
many irregular persons, and there appeared a manifest change in the 
manners of the people ; some also who were addicted to several sensu- 
al vices, were reclaimed to a more orderly way of life. This reforma- 
tion was 80 considerable, that the gentlemen of the county took notice 
of it, and Mr. Beckett received upon this account, the thanks of the 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



71 



magistrates and gentlemen of that Colony, for his great pains and la- 
bors. Upon Mr. Beckett's first coming, there was no Church built at 
Lewis ; but the people presently made a subscription, and began to 
build one with all expedition. In the mean time, Mr. Beckett preached 
in the most convenient houses he could have ; his necessary labors 
were very great, for he was obliged to travel seventy or eighty miles 
every week, to discharge the duties of his funi. Jon, in several places ; 
that large county, fifty miles in length, and twenty in breadth, being 
all reckoned his Parish. 

In the second year after his arrival, he continued to have the same 
good success, and in six months baptized forty-eight children, five per- 
sons of advanced years, two mothers of several children, one white 
servant, and two negro slaves, and in two of the Churches he had 
twenty Communicants each time. There were above one hundred and 
forty persons, masters of families, zealous members of the Church of 
England, besides many single persons, servants, and negroes, that con- 
stantly attended divine service. But the number of the native Indians 
did not exceed one hundred and twenty, who had a small settlement 
on the utmost border of the parish, where it adjoins to Maryland ; tliey 
are extremely barbarous, and obstinately ignorant. 

The inhabitants of Lewis raised the frame of a Church on a high 
bank in the center of the town in October, 1720, and diligently carried 
on the building ; in the mean time, the people in the country, assisted 
with some money gathered in town, began to finish and fit up the two 
Churches, which had been raised at distant places in the county. Mr. 
Beckett used much diligence in all parts of his ministerial office, and in 
the following year baptized eighty-two, twelve of which were grown per- 
sons. As he traveled this year, through Kent county, 'to go to a meet- 
ing of the Society's missionaries at Chichester, he preached in that 
county to a good body of people, who had built them a large Church, 
but had no minister, and on one day baptized twenty-one, six of which 
were grown persons. He represented to the Society, that he had a very 
numerous congregation, and that there was great want of a missionary 
in the country ; there being a considerable Lody of the people here, 
who joined heartily with the Church of England ; and some others 
who had been of many religious persuasions, and now seemed to be 
none at all ; and therefore had still more need of an instructor. 

In the year following, the Church at Lewis was finished, and divine 
service was performed in it ; and the two Churches in the country were 
completed. Mr. Beckett writes thus concerning the people's zeal for 
religion : " We have now three Churches in this county, yet none of 
them Vtill contain the hearers that would constantly attend divine ser- 
vice. The people, at a good time of the year, make no account of 
riding twenty miles to Church ; a thing very common in this part of 
America ; which is sufficient to show, that our people have a great 
value for the favor of the Society, and that our labor is not lost, in this 
distant part of the world. Mr. Beckett still continues in this mission 
with great success. 



/ 1 



n 



Humphrey's History of 



0. As the administration of this ffovernment is in the hands of the 
Quakers, no a''*8 of Assembly have oeen made, either for building of 
Churches, or f ling any salaries upon ministers ; however, a great part 
of the people ^eing hearty members of the Church of England, have 
contributed, by private subscriptions, very liberally, and built fifteen 
Churches, very decent structures for celebrating public divine worship. 
Several valuable bequests have been made for the use of the Churcn 
and ministers, and houses have been built for them ; and the congrega- 
tions of each minister do voluntarily contribute towards the mainte- 
nance of their minister, as much, and in some places more, than any 
law could reasonably demand of them. The Society have distributed 
among the poorer people in the province, above two thousand volumes 
of bound books, and about £300 worth of small tracts. 



CHAPTER VHL 

Missionaries sent to New Jersey. Several Congregations are gathered. 
The Missionaries' Labors. The people become very zealous. Seven 
convenient Churches built, by voluntary contributions. 

1. New Jersey was fornjerly reckoned part of NovaBelgia, or New 
York Government ; but the Duke of York, to whom the whole coun- 
try was granted by King Charles the Second, gave this part in the 
year 1664, to John Lord Berkley, and Sir George Carteret ; the Pro- 
vince was by them divided into two countries, and named East and 
West Jersies, and governed by different governors. But in the year 
1702, the proprietaries surrendered their rights to her late Majesty 
Queen Anne, and both countries had one name, New Jersey. The first 
European inhabitants were the Swedes, the Dutch from New York en- 
croached on them, but the English have dispossessed the Dutch at New 
York, made themselves masters of this country also. This Province 
extends itself in length on the sea coasts, and on Hudson^s Bay, 
about one hundred and twenty miles, and in the broadest part is near 
of the same extent. 

The first English inhabitants of this country were Quakers and Ana- 
baptists, and the first Governor of East New Jersey, was Mr. Barclay 
the Quaker, famous for his writings, but not the author of the Apology. 
For this reason the people here, used to repair to Philadelphia, the 
principal town of the Quakers, at their yearly meetings. The division 
among the Quakers, which arose at Philadelphia, concerning the suflS- 
ciency of the light within every man to salvation without anything 
else, spread also among this people ; and a considerable number of 
persons of a more sober understanding, began to think the written 
Word of God, and the instituted means of Grace, ought to be more 
carefully attended to. In the year 1702, the Reverend Mr. Keith and 
Mr. Talbot were traveling preachers from this Society in those countries : 
and as the sober Quakers of New Jersey agreed with many of their 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



73 



of tbe 

Jing of 

>atpart 

i, have 

.fifteen 

rorship. 

Churcn 

ngrega- 

mainte- 

lan any 

tributed 

irolumes 



gathered, 
. Seven 

or New 
)le coun- 
rt in the 
the Pro- 
East and 
the year 
Majesty 
The first 
York en- 
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n's Bay, 
rt is near 

md Ana- 
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Apology, 
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be more 
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r of their 



brethren at Philadelphia, in opposing tbe enthusiastic Foxian Quakers, 
they wero induced, by hearing some sermons from Mr. Keith and Mr. 
Talbot to enquire what was the doctrine and discipline of the Church 
of England. In a little time, a considerable congregation gathered 
themselves together at Burlington, resolving to receive the Church of 
England worship. 

Burlington is situate on the River Delaware, is the capital town of 
that division, called West Jersey, containing about two hundred fami- 
lies ; the place was honored with the courts being kept here, the houses 
were neatly built of brick, and the market well supplied with provisions. 
As the people had agreed to conform with the Church of England, 
their next care was to get a minister. They had heard Mr. Keith and 
Mr. Talbot often preach, and the latter was particularly acceptable to 
many of them. Mr. Talbot also was desirous to employ his labors 
in this country, rather than in any other place. They invited him to 
stay with them, and sent over a request to the Bishop of London, and 
to the Society, desiring he might be settled among them, which was 
granted. There were several gentlemen of considerable interest in this 
country, who had been educated in the Church of England ; particu- 
larly Colonel Cox, then one of her majesty's council there. Colonel 
Quarry, Colonel Morris, and Mr. Jeremiah cass ; they all encouraged 
this disposition of the people, and numbers fell off from Quakerism 
daily. 

The people began soon to set about building a Church. The Church 
of St. Mary had its foundation stone laid in the year 170.3, on the 25th 
of March, and was therefore named St. Mary's. The building was carried 
on with that zeal and vigor, that on Whitsunday in 1704, divine service 
was performed, and the Sacrament administered in it to a large congre- 
gation. A burying place of three acres was purchased soon after, and 
well fenced in. And the Lord Combury, then Governor of this Pro- 
vince and New York, upon application made to him by the members of 
the Church, made them a body incorporate, with all powers and privi- 
leges requisite. In the year 1708, Queen Anne sent this Church and 
several others in this Province, Communion table cloths, silver Chalices, 
and Salvers, and Pulpit cloths. The members of the Church increased, 
and they began to think of purchasing a Glebe for their minister. Dr. 
Frampton, then Bishop of Gloucester, dying about this time, and leav- 
ing £100 towards propagating the gospel in America, at the sole di- 
rection of Dr. Compton, then Bishop of London, it was at the instance 
of Dame Katherine Bovey, of Hackly in Gloucestershire, who h^d 
been a benefactress before to this Church, laid out in the purchase of a 
convenient house, and six acres of land, adjoining to the Church at 
Burlington; and about the year 1710, Mr. Thomas Leicester gave, by 
his last will, two hundred and fifty acres of land to this Church forever. 

Mr. Talbot continued in his mi^ssion, very diligent and with much suc- 
cess ; and as there were many congregations of the people in that 
country, which had no ministers resident among them, he spared no 
pains in going, and performing all the ministerial offices among them. 

10 



74 



Humphrey's History of 



He was a very zealous and industrious man. He came over to England, 
about the year 1719, and returned afterwards to New Jersey. But the 
Society received advices, that he bad fallen into an open disaffection to 
the present happy establishment, and had neglected to use the prayers 
in the Liturgy ror the king and royal family ; upon which he was im- 
mediately discharged the Society's mission. He died there in the year 
1727. The Reverend Mr. Horwood hath been sent lately to this city ; 
and accounts have been sent, that he makes a progress in his mission. 
New Bristol lies opposite to Burlington, on the otlier side the Dela- 
ware ; the people forsook Quakerism much about the same time as the 
inhabitants of Burlington did. A Church was soon erected here 
through the zeal of the people, especially through the means of two 
worthy gentlemen of this place, Mr. John Rowland and Mr. Anthony 
Burton, who were chiefly instrumental in this Avork. They had no 
missionary sent to reside among them conatantly, but used to be visited 
by the minister of Burlington. The Rev. Mr. Talbot, who was fixed at 
Burlington, used frequently to cross the water to them, and preach and 
perform all other ministerial offices. Mr. Thorowgood Moor used also to 
visit them when he was at Burlington, in Mr. Talbot's absence. The 
people were sensible the Society were not able to establish missionaries 
in every place, and were therefore content to be assisted by the minister 
of Burlington ; and the Society have always given directions, that the 
minister of that place, should take Bristol into his care. The Church 
here is named St. James, as being opened near that day. 

Hopewell and Maidenhead are two neighboring towns, containing a 
considerable number of families. The people of Hopewell showed a 
very early desire of having the Church of England worship settled 
among them; and in the year 1704, built a Church with voluntary 
contributions, though they had no prospect then of having a minister. 
The Reverend Mr. May was there some short time, but Mr. Talbot from 
Burlington often visited them ; they sent several letters to the Society, 
desiring a missionary, but the Society could not then undertake a new 
charge. This Church was for ten years vacant ; which was a great dis- 
appointment to the people ; yet they continued all that time in the same 
mind, and whenever any missionary, occasionally going that way, gave 
them a sermon, they constantly came to the Church service. However, 
in 1720, the Reverend Mr. Harrison was appointed missionary there, with 
the care of Maidenhead. During his continuance there, he was diligent 
in all parts of his duty, and the people were well satisfied with his labors ; 
but he soon wrote the Society word, that he was not able to undergo 
the fatigue of constantly riding between two places; and in 1723, he 
removed to a Church in Statten Island, in New York Government, 
which the Governor of that Province appointed for him. 

The inhabitants of Salem wrote a very earnest letter to the Society, 
desiring they might have a missionary settled among them. The Rev- 
erend Mr. Holbrook was sent there in the year 1722. As soon as he jame 
among them, the people, though generally poor, contributed very freely 
towai^ raising a neat brick Church ; they made application to the 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



7» 



Church people at Philadelphia, for their assistance, and received con- 
siderable contributions from theiu. Mr. Uolbrook soon after acquaint- 
ed the Society, that many of the inhabitants lead a more Christian 
life, eight grown per^<ons, men and women, had desired and received 
baptism, and a considnrable number of children had been baptized. 
That in the discharge of all parts of his ministerial office, he haii the 
satisfaction of finding the people seriously disposed, and the numbers of 
Church members daily increasing. He continues now there with good 
success. 

Elizabethtown is a very considerable place, exceeds any other in the 
Province of East Jersey, both for lurgeness of its buildmgs, and the 
number of inhabitants, consisting of three hundred faniiiies. It lies 
three miles within the Creek, opposite to the west end of Statten Is- 
land. Here the English settled Hrst, and this place thrived the most 
The Government of the Province is managed here, the Assemblies are 
held, and the greatest part of the trade of the whole colony carried on 
here. The lieverend Mr. Brook was sent missionary in the year 1704 ; 
and by the Lord Cornbury's direction, then Governor of this Province, 
he officiated at Perth Amboy sometimes. The number of people in 
both places, was very considerable, and their ways of worship various ; 
they were chiefly independents, but many not professing any religion. 
However, by diligent application, he persuaded the better disposed of 
all sorts, to consider and attend more to their spiritual concernment. 
He preached to numbers of independents and others ; they began soon 
to approve of the Church of England service. The wiser people resolv- 
ed to settle their religious affairs, in a more orderly manner. When 
Mr. Brook came first among them, they had no place set apart for cel- 
ebrating divine worship. However, he had leave at first, to preach in 
Colonel Townly's house ; that became too small for his growing con- 
gregation, in a half year's time ; the best place that could be got was a 
barn, and that they were forced to relinquish in winter. The mem- 
bers of our Communion, were now a large body of people, they resolved 
to build a Church ; and accordingly on St. John the Baptist's day, in 
the year 1706, the foundation of a Church was laid, whose name it 
therefore bears. The Church was soon after completed ; it is a strong 
and well completed brick building, fifty feet long, thirty broad, and 
twenty in height, very handsomely finished. 

Mr. Brook used exceeding diligence in his cure, and was pleased to 
find the best of all sorts of people coming over to the Church of Eng- 
land. He exerted himself and at times used to perform Divine service 
at seven places, fifty miles in extent ; namely, at Elizabethtown, Rah- 
way, Perth Amboy, Cheesequakes, Piscataway, Rock Hill, and in a 
con^egation at Page's. This duty was very difficult and laborious. 
Besides preaching he used to catechise and expound fourteen times in 
a month ; this obliged him to be on horseback, almost every day, which 
was expensive, as well as very toilsome to him. However, this dili- 
gence raised a very zealous spirit in many of the people. The inhabi- 
tants of Perth Ainboy presently sat about giving materials for building 



76 



Humphrey'i History of 



a stone churcli. The inhabitants of Piscataway repaired an old dissent- 
ing meeting-house for present use, and collected amonff themselves 
an hundred pounds, towards building a stone church. While these 
things were going on, iir. Brooks dies, in the year il707, very much 
lamented by the people then, and remembered, with much honor, sev- 
eral years after his death, in a letter wrote by the Churoh members 
there, to the Society, thanking them for sending another MiHsionary to 
succeed our worthy, and never to be forgotten Pastor, Mr. Brooks, 
whose labors afibrded universal satisfaction to us. 

The Reverend Mr. Vaughan was appointed Missionary there ; he 
hath very successfully carried on the work of the Ministry. At first 
he met with many difficulties and discouragements, which, by his well- 
regulated conduct and discreet zeal, he peaceably overcame. The main 
body of his congregation were but just brought over from various ways ; 
these he kept together without much trouble. He visited the remainmg 
dissenters of all kinds, at their houses, and without using any angry dis< 
putings, engaged many to a conformity. In the year 1 7 1 1 , he acquainted 
the Society with the progress he made. That he had a large congrega- 
tion at Elizabeth town constantly, and had thirty communicants monthly ; 
he had baptized eighty children, and twelve grown persons, in the 
space of two years ; that he kept constantly a monthly lecture at Rah- 
way, where be preached to a small congregation, and catechized their 
children ; that several families of the neighboring town Woodbridge, 
had hereupon requested him to make them a visit, which he gladly and 
presently complied with, taking this to be a plain demonstration of 
their good disposition to receive the Church doctrines, instead of various 
opinions of Quakerism and Anabaptism. 

Woodbridge is a good town, situate on a creek in the Sound, formed 
by Statten Island and the Jersey ; it contained one hundred and twen- 
ty families. The small congregation which embraced the Church of 
England Worship, and came to hear Mr. Vaughan, made a subscrip- 
tion of £100, and raised a timber frame, clapboarded. Mr. Vaughan 
used to officiate here once a fortnight, in the afternoon. He represent- 
ed to the Society the want of large Bibles, and Common-Prayer Books 
for the Churches; and of Bibles and Common-Prayers, Expositions on 
the Catechism, and other devotional and practical Tracts for the people; 
that it would be a great charity to numbers of the inhabitants, not 
only on account of their ignorance of the doctrines of Christianity, but 
also of their poverty, and the difficulty of getting books. The Socie- 
ty, by the first conveyance, sent him large Bibles and Common-Prayer 
Books for the Churches, one hundred Bibles and Common-Prayers, and 
five pounds worth of small Tracts, to be distributed among the poorer 
people. The Society have been since informed these books proved very 
useful in leading many into a due knowledge of the duties of a Chris- 
tian life. 

Mr. Vaughan extended also his labors at times to Piscataway, about 
ten miles distant from Elizabethtown, commodiously situate about six 
miles up the river Raritan, and consisting of eighty families. Much 



The Propagation Society, ^-c. 



77 



the greater number of the people here were very well disposed, and at- 
tended the public worship at stated times, with a great deal of devo- 
tion. But several of the inhabitants were infected with the errors of 
the Anabaptists and Sabbatarians, the latter of which did in a sort Ju- 
daizo in their manner of keeping Saturday, and refused showing any 
regard for the Lord's day, by abstaining from any of their ordinary 
callings. However, at length several came to hear the prayers of the 
Church, and many young people, who bad no inveterate prejudices, 
were pretty constant in their attendance. As yet there was no church 
built ; but Mr. John Burroughs, a serious Christian, gave the people 
the use of his house, which they frequented several years, to attend 
Divine worship. 

Mr. Vaugban continued to discharge the duties of his mission with 
good success. The members of the Church of England wrote a letter 
to the Society, in the year 1717, returning thanks for the settling of 
Mr. Vaughan among them, expressing themselves farther thus : ^ We 
esteem ourselves happy under nis pastoral care, and have a thorough 
persuasion of mind tnat the Church of Christ is now planted among 
us in its purity. Mr. Vaughan hath, to the great comfort and edifica- 
tion of our families, in these dark and distant regions of the world, 
prosecuted the duties of his holy calling with the utmost application 
and diligence ; adorned his character with an exemplary life and con- 
versation ; and so behaved himself with all due prudence and fidelity; 
showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, and sound speech ; that they 
who are of the contrary part have no evil thing to say of him. The 
Society received several other accounts to the same purport Mr. 
Vaughan continues now in this mission, with the same advantageous 
character. 

Perth Amboy hath, from the first, been under the Society's care. It 
is said to be a very pleasant, healthy, and commodious place ; situate 
at the mouth of the river Raritan, which falls into Sandy Hook bay, 
able to contain a great fleet of ships, and never frozen. So commodi- 
ous for trade, that ships in one tide can come up the merchant's door. 
It is but a small place, though honored with the name of a city, and 
is much exceeded by Elizabethtown. Upon the English conquest of 
this country, the religious affairs were for a long time very unsettled ; 
the new comers being employed in ordering their plantations and trade. 
For some time no congregations met for celebrating public Divine wor- 
ship, either in the Presbyterian way, or according to the Church of 
England. However, some clergymen, occasionally passing through 
this place, performed Divine service, and administered the Sacraments ; 
by this means the sober people kept some remembrance of the Church 
of England service. At last, several of the Proprietaries of the east- 
em division, requested Bishop Compton to send them a minister. The 
Reverend Mr. Edward Pertbuck was sent Upon his arrival at Perth 
Amboy, the Council of the Proprietaries set apart one of the houses 
(which had been formerly built at the charge of the general Proprieta- 
ries) for the peculiar service and worship of God, according to the laws 



n 



Humphrey't History of 



of England. This house, by a number of good peoole, was soon pew- 
ed and fitted up, fur the intended religious use. Mr. Pertbuck per- 
formed Divine service here, and sometimes, when he attended the Gov- 
ernor to Burlington, had the public Town house allowed him to preach 
in; this was before the establishment of this Society. 

The tirst missionary employed here by the Society, was Mr. Brooks, 
mentioned above. lie fru((uently visited this city, by tlte Lord Corn- 
bury's direction, then Governor of New York. In the year 1706, the 
people grew zealous to have the Church worship established among 
them, and began to prepare materials for building a Church ; but Mr. 
Brooks' death happening soon, it occasioned a delay. The Society di- 
rected Mr. Vaughan to take what care he could of this city, and he fre- 
quently visited tbem, and was very useful and acceptable to the people. 
The lieverend Mr. Ualiday did reside here some time, but he did not 
continue long. Mr. Vaughan acquainted the Society, in the year 1721, 
that the people of this City had now erected a Church, a well compact- 
ed building of stone and brick, on a lot of ground given for that pur- 
pose, by Thomas Gordon, George Willocks, and John Barclay, Esqs., 
who have transferred and conveyed their title to the Church-wardens 
and Vestry of the said Church ; the remaining part of this lot, being 
two acres of land, is for a parsonage house, for a public school, and for 
a house for the schoolmaster, when they shall be provided with a per- 
son of suitable abilities, for that purpose. Besides this, Mr. George 
Willocks, and Major John Harrison, have given twelve acres of land, 
contiguous to the city, for a glebe for an Episcopal minister forever. 
There hath been also given to the Church, by the will of a pious and 
charitable gentlewoman, Mrs. Margaret Willocks, deceased, wife of Mr. 
John Willocks, a house in which she lived, and two acres of land 
thereto belonging, for the use of the minister there, being of the Church 
of England forever. This last gift is reckoned to be worth £400 ster- 
ling money. 

The Society observed, with much satisfaction, this zeal of the peo- 
ple, and resolved now to send a resident missionary to this place. The 
fieverend Mr. Skinner was sent in the year 1721. He was received by 
the people with much kindness and civility. Accounts were transmit- 
ted to the Society, of the favor the inhabitants showed him, and 
that the congregation at Amboy increased considerably, and the other 
at Piscataway was daily growing, and would in a little time, in all prob- 
ability, be as numerous as any in those parts. Soon after Mr. Skinner's 
arrival, the people of Piscataway built themselves a handsome wooden 
chapel. Both congregations increased every year. Mr. Skinner con- 
tinues now in this mission, with good success. 

The Society have supported also one schoolmaster at Bturlington, 
from the year 1712, to teach the poorer children to read, write, cypher, 
and tic Church catechism. Accounts and certificates have been trans- 
mitted to the Society from time to time, of his teaching school with 
diligence. The schoolmaster's name is Rowland Ellis. 

The people of this country, though they have no law which might 



The Propagation Socieljft ^. 



79 



them to build churches, have, nererthelen, out of their own 
Christian disposition, built seven convenient churches, and have, accord- 
ing to their abilities, contributed freely towards the support of their 
ministers; and the members of the Church Communion increase 
continually. 



The 



lington, 

(cypher, 

trana- 

t)l with 

might 



CHAPTER IX. 

An Act passed in the yeaf 1693, for Settling and Maintaining a 
Ministry in New York Oovemment. Churches directed to be built 
in 1698. A Church built in the City of Neva York. Missiona- 
ries sent to this Colony, to Westchester County, to Albany, to Stat- 
ten Island, to Long Island ; their Labors Schoolmasters supported 
here. Ten Churches built ; Several Donations made to them. 

1. New York government upon the continent, without computing New 
Jersey, and the Islands belonging to it, viz, that tract of land between 
New England and New Jersey, is not above 20 miles broad, but ex- 
tends near 200 miles along Hudson River into the main land. The 
Dutch made the first settlements here ; but in 1664, the English re- 
duced this country, and most of the inhabitants submitted to the crown 
of England, and continued in their settlements ; in a little time great 
numl^rs of English came to this country. It was soon found to t^ the 
most healthy of all North America, and .exceeding commodious for trade. 
The Dutch had some teachers, before the English came ; but the Eng- 
lish were taken up at first, in settling their new plantations ; and so 
much divided in their sentiments in religon, that there was no face of 
the Church of England here, till about the year 1693. Colonel Fletch- 
er being then Governor of this Province, an Act of Assembly was pass- 
ed for settling and maintaining a ministry. A considerable number of 
the inhabitants of New York city, the capital of the whole Province, 
and as it is said, the pleasantest city in all America, were very desi- 
rous of having the Church of England worship settled among them. 
However, it was near four years aller the passing of this act, before 
any thing was done in pursuance of it. The choice of a minister for 
each Church was, by the Act, lodged in the Vestry, and the choice of 
a Vestry in the people. It was some time before there was a Vestry 
composed of men of such principles, as would choose a Church of Eng- 
land minister. About the year 1697, there was such a Vestry ; their 
first endeavor was, to get a church built. This was compassed sooner than 
they could hope, much less expect. The zeal of the people was such, 
they made so large contributions, that a sufiicient sum was raised, to 
build and finish, what was then said to be, the finest Church in North 
America. They now proceeded to consider of a minister. Mr. Vesey 
was then in the place, but not in Holy Orders ; a gentleman highly ap- 
proved of, and beloved by every one. The governor, Colonel Fletcher, 



1; 



80 



Humphrey's History of 



and Colonel Heathcote, proposed him to the Vestry, as a proper person 
tu be chosen, as soon as he should be ordained. The Vestry received 
this motion with uncommon satisfaction, and unanimously chose him 
to that Church, provided he went to England to receive Holy Orders. 
He came over here, and was ordained, and upon his return to New 
York, was inducted into this Church. This was the first setting up 
the Church service in this government. Some years afterwards, when 
the Lord Cornbury was Governor, orders were issued out to the magis- 
trates of several towns, to build churches, by virtue of an act passed in 
1698, enabling several towns to build public houses for the worship of 
God. Nothing had been done in pursuance of this Act, till the Lord 
Cornbury's order gave life to this design. Churches were soon after 
built in the respective towns, and the expenses levied on the inhabitants 
by a public tax. 

The members of the Church of England began to increase now in 
many towns, but especially at New York City. This was in a great 
measure owing to the liev. Mr. Vesey, who by his whole conduct had 
gained the esteem of people, of many sorts of persuasions. He was not 
a missionary f:om this Society, so that but few and imperfect accounts 
of his labors, have been sent hither. However, I cannot in justice to 
hiTi, conclude this paragraph, without giving the roader afewlines, 
wrote to the Society concerning him, by a gentleman, who himself de- 
served all commendation, Caleb Heathcote, Esq., who, by his prudent 
zeal, and wise conduct, was a chief instrument in settling the Church 
of England in New York government, in Connecticut colony, and in New 
Jersey. His letter to the Society in 1714, runs thus: "Mr. Vesey 
being settled in our Church, hath ever since continued with great faith- 
fulness in the discharge of his duty. His life and conversation hath 
likewise been very regular, and without the least stain or blemish, as 
to his morals. He is not only a very excellent preacher, but was al- 
ways very careful never <o mix in his sermons, any thing improper to 
be delivered out of the pulpit It is the good Providence of God, he 
is continued so long among us, for the thorough settlement of the 
Church in this place. The accounts I have given you of Mr. Vesey, is 
not grounded on reports, having said nothing but what I very well know, 
and have observed from sixteen or seventeen years' acquaintance with, 
and knowledge of him." Mr. Vesey is now living, and Rector of that 
Church, the chief in New York. 

2. Westchester county lies on the sea coast, to the west of Hudson 
River. The people here were more generally English, than in any 
county of the government ; it contains a very great tract of land, and 
generally the best of any in those parts. There were computed to be 
in it, not above two thousand souls in the year 1702 ; but the good- 
ness of the soil seemed to promise it would in time be a very populous 
place. The whole county is sixteen miles in length, containing six 
small towns, Westchester, East Chester, New Rochel, Rye, Marmaroneck, 
and Bedford, besides two small places, called lower Yonkers and Phil- 
ipsburg. This was the state of the place in 1702. The inhabitants of 



t 

I 
a 

I 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



81 



ludson 

in any 

id, and 

to be 

good- 

jpulons 

^ing six 

Ironeck, 

Id Phil- 

Itants of 



Westchester, the chief town, were the first who desired a missionary in 
this country. They built a church, in pursuance of the act for building 
five churches, and i260 a year was settled on the minister. The Society 
appointed the Rev. Mr. Bartow missionary here, in the year 1702. The 
Lord Cornbury, then governor of the province, fixed Mr. Bartow's chief 
residence at Webtchester ; however, as there were several other places 
which wanted his assistance, he divided his labors among them, accord- 
ing to the Society's directions. He often visited East Chester, New Roch- 
ell, and Yonkers. He had good success in his mission, and wrote to the 
Society in 1704 : "I have been now two years in actual service of my 
mission in this parish, and, by the blessing of God, have been instru- 
mental in bringing many into the Communion of our Church, who are 
very constant and devout at their attendance on Divine worship. Those 
who were enemies at my first coming, are now zealous professors of 
the ordinances of the Gospel. The inhabitants of my parish live scat- 
tered and much dispersed, which occasions my duty to be more diffi- 
cult." Mr. Bartow continued very industrious in his mission, and well 
respected by the people. His cure was very large ; the number of in- 
habitants at Westchester was about five hundred and fifty, at East 
Chester, above four hundred, and at Yonkers, two hundred and thirty. 
He used to preach at East Chester (which was now rrnde a distinct 
parish, and had built a church) once a month, where he had a large 
congregation. The people here were generally of the Presbyterian per- 
suasion till Mr. Bartow came among them ; but in the year 1703 they 
embraced the Church of England worship, and received him for their 
minister. There is no parsonage house here, but there are twenty- 
three acres of glebe land, given for the use of a Church of England 
minister forever. As often as he could he visited Yonkers ; a large 
congregation, chiefly of Dutch people, came to hear him. There was 
no church built here, so they assembled for Divine worship, at a house 
of Mr. Joseph Bebits, and tjometimes in a barn, when empty. Mr. Bar- 
tow continued very diligent in the discharge of all the duties of his 
ministerial office ; he gained over a great number to the Church com- 
munion ; he persuaded many grown persons, who were negligent of all 
religion, of the advantage of Baptism, gave them Baptism, and ihey 
became very sober members of the Church. He instructed and bap- 
tized several negroes ; he gained the general love and esteem of his 
people, and, after twenty-five years of laborious service in the Church, 
died in 1726. The Society have sent the Rev. Mr. Standard to suc- 
ceed hira, who is lately settled there. 

3. New Rochell was settled by French Protestants ; it is in West- 
chester parish. The Rev. Mr. Bondet, a French clergyman, officiated 
Ihere, and was for several years supported only by voluntary contribu- 
tions of the people, and a small allowance of £30 from New York 
government. At first he did not use the English liturgy, but the French 
prayers, which were used in the Protestant Churches in France. But 
about the year 1709 the people generally conformed to the Church of 
England, and applied to the Society for an allowance for their minister. 
Mr. Bondet was recommended by some gentlemen of that country, to 

11 




'.' p 



m 



Humphrey's His tort/ of 



i 



be their minister, had the character of a good, sober man, and more 
especially useful there, because he could preach in English as well as in 
French, which he did every third Sunday, and by that means brought 
the young people to understand English. The Society appointed Mr. 
Bondet a salary as a missionary, but directed him to use only the 
Church of England liturgy. He did so, and the people generally con- 
formed, as they signified they would. Upon his desire, the Society 
sent him a large number of English Common-Prayer Books, which were 
distributed among the younger people, who, by that means, began to 
understand English, and came to hear the English sermon. Mr. Bon- 
det had a large congregation, and commonly about fifty communicants. 
The church they used was now become ruinous, and the inhabitants of 
the place, and members of the Church increased. They began to 
gather voluntary contributions to build a new church, and about the 
year 1711, got a sufficient sum, and erected a small Church. Some 
time after, a worthy gentleman, Mr. John Pelham, Lord of the Manor 
of Pelham, (of which New Rochell is a part,) gave one hundred acres 
of land within the said Manor, for the use of the Church. The town 
of Rochell gave a house, and three acres of land, adjoining the church, 
to the minister forever. Mr. Bondet persevered, with his former care, 
in all parts of his office, till the year 1722, in which he died, much la- 
mented by his parish. He was a plain sober man, and had been minis- 
ter of that parish above twenty years. He bequeathed to the town, 
for the use of the minister, his library, amounting to four hundred vol- 
umes of books. 

The people of New Rochell wrote soon after his death, to the Society 
for a Missionary. The Rev Mr. Stoupe was sent in 1723. He was very 
kindly received by the people, and proved the more acceptable to them, 
because he could preach in French, and many of them understood only 
that language. Accounts have been sent, that his congregation in- 
creases; that besides his other care, he extends his labors to the 
negroes, and hath instructed several, and baptized seventeen negroes, in 
the three last years. He continues now there, with success. 

4. Rye is a considerable town in Westchester county, very populous, 
but the people were of various persuasions. There were comouted to 
be in this Parish, near eight hundred white people in 1703. It is situ- 
ate near the sea-coast, and borders on New England. The Rev. Mr. 
Muirson was settled here in 1704. The people of the Church of 
England here, had not used to meet as a congregation ; hov,\;ver, by 
his diligence in preaching, he soon gathered a great number ; and many 
persons who had lived in a total neglect of all religion, were speedily 
reclaimed ; a considerable number of grown persons, men and women, 
were baptized and admitted to the Communion. He wrote thus to the 
Society in 1706: "I have baptized about two hundred young and old, 
but most grown persons ; and am in hopes of initiating many more, 
when I have instructed them. This is a large Parish, the towns are far 
distant ; the people were some Quakers, some Anabaptists, others Inde- 
pendents; though once they were violently set against the Church, they 
now conform heartily. I have now above forty communicants, t|iough 



The Propagation Society, ^. 88 

I had only six when I first administered the holy Sacrament. I find that 
Catechizing on week-days in remote towns, and frequent visiting, is of 
great service. Every fourth Sunday I preach at Bedford. I did it long 
with small success; there are in that tos»n above 120 persons unbap- 
tized ; and notwithstanding all the means I used, I could but lately per- 
suade them of the necessity of that holy ordinance." The Society re- 
ceived accounts from several other gentlemen, of the extraordinary suc- 
cess of Mr. Muiraon. The inhabitants of Rye were indeed very forward 
in every thing, which might promote the settling the Church of Eng- 
land there. They soon raised, at their own expense, without the help 
of the rest of the Parish, a stone Church, a handsome building, fifty 
feet long, thirty-five wide, and twenty high, with a Steeple. But 
while they were in this warmth of action, Mr. Muirson dies ; a very 
worthy man, who had taken great pains, and was attended with equal 
success. A very honorable character of him was sent to the Society, 
by persons of the best rank and note in that government. There will 
be occasion to give a farther account of his labors in New England, 
hereafter. 

His death put a stop to the finishing of the Church at Rye. The 
outside was completed, but not the inside. The Society would by no 
means neglect so large a body of well disposed people. The Rev. Mr. 
Bridge was very soon settled there. He found the Church unfinished 
within side ; however he made use of it, and performed divine service 
there, though it was not yet floored. This moved the inhabitants to 
complete the inside. A subscription was put about, and by the liberal- 
ity and encouragement of the Governor, (Robert Hunter, Esq.,) a suffi- 
cient sum was raised to finish it. A handsome Altar-piece was made of 
Carolina-Cedar, railed in, and a decent Pulpit and Reading Desk, and 
other necessaries were made. Mr. Bridge behaved himself in all re- 
spects worthily, ana the raembei-s of the Church increased at Rye ; he 
had for several years but an inditierent state of health, and died in 
1719, much regretted by all who knew him. Upon an account sent of 
his death, the Society wrote to the neighboring Clergy of New York, to 
visit by turns Rye, as ihey could conveniently. The Rev. Mr. Jenney 
was appointed Missionary there in 1*722. He entered upon his mission 
with zeal, and his congregation now amounted generally to about three 
hundred persons ; he visited at times several other townships, and distinct 
liberties, which were at too great a distance from the Church, for the 
people to attend divine service with any conveniency. In about three 
years time, he baptized twelve grown persons, fifty children, and per- 
suaded several to come to the Communion. In 1727, he removed from 
this mission to Hempsted ; and the Rev. Mr. Wetmore, who was then 
Catechist at New York, requested the Society that he might be fixed 
here. The Society appointed him there in 1727; and he hath since 
wrote, that his congregation are of a very Christian behavior, that he 
hath baptized forty children ; and several grown persons apply to him 
for baptism, two of which are negroes ; after due instruction, he intends 
to baptize them : and that upon his request the town have chosen 



%. 



84 



Humphrey's History of 



trustees, who are empowered to raise a tax upon the inhabitants, for the 
repair of their Church. He continues there now, with success. 

5. Albany, so called from the Duke of York's Scotch title, as New 
York was from his English, is situate on Hudson river. It was inhab- 
ited mostly by Dutch. It is considerable, as being the chief place of 
trade with the Indians, and a frontier both against the Indians and the 
French, who, in conjunction, have several times invaded this Province 
on that side. It is a very populous place, said to contain, in 17 12, near 
four thousand souls, of which four hundred and fifty only were negroes, or 
Indian slaves. For the security of the Province, both against the Indi- 
ans and the French, it had a garrison of two hundred soldiers, and a 
strong Fort. The Rev. Mr. Barclay, was Chaplain to this Fort in the 
year 1709. The inhabitants being almost all Dutch, had a minister, 
Mr. Dellius ; but he about this time returned to Europe, and the Society 
appointed the Rev. Mr. Barclay to be missionary and catechist there ; 
because the Society were desirous that he should instruct some of the 
great number of slaves there, and Indians who occasionally resorted to 
that town. They come here to trade with the English, and it was 
hoped he might meet with many fair opportunities of inviting them to 
become Christians. Mr. Barclay was very industrious in his mission, 
and accceptable to the people. Upon the Dutch minister, Mr. Dellius, 
being absent, he persuaded many people of the best note and charac- 
ter there, to come to hear him. They attended him in their Church, 
where the English Liturgy was read in Dutch, and he preached to them 
in Dutch ; several of the principal inhabitants conformed entirely to the 
Church of j£ngland. and numbers of the common people followed 
tlieir example. Mr. Barclay was very intent in teaching the younger 
people the Church Catechism in English, especially the poorer chil- 
dren ; he catechised publicly in the Church on Sundays in the after- 
noon, and read an explanation of some part of it ; he taught them also 
twice a week, on week-days : his scholars were generally seventy chil- 
dren, most of Dutch extraction ; and in less than three years time he 
taught one hundred and sixty the Catechism, and otherwise instructed 
them in the principles of the Christian religion. 

Mr. Barclay also visited a small village, named Schenectady, about 
twenty miles above Albany, towards the Mohock's Castle ; this was the 
remotest settlement of the English. The Indians came frequently to 
this town to get provisions and to traffic; he often preached to the 
people of this place, and used to invite such of the Indians as under- 
stood any English, to come to hear him ; several came, at times, to 
divine service, such as understood anything of English ; and he tried all 
methods he could think of, to engage them to be instructed in our 
language and religion, but with very small success ; several indeed 
would seem for a time, to be converted ; b;'t soon after thyy would 
return again, to their first savage life. He had more success with the 
negroes, many of which he instructed in the Christian faith, and 
baptized. 

Thus for near seven years he preached upon sufferance, in a small 
Chapel belonglngto the Dutch congregation. This Chapel being much 



The Propagation Society, ^'C. 



85 



.1 



small 
much 



decayed, he concerted with some members of the Church Communion, 
to try to get subscriptions for building a Church. He found the peo- 
ple very zealous to carry on this design. The Governor of the Prov- 
ince, Rob>3rt Hunter, E^q., contributed very generously, and encour- 
aged others to do so ; besides his subscription money, he gave all the 
stone and lime .'or building the Church. The town of Albany gave 
presently £200, and every inhabitant in the poor village of Schenec- 
tady, gave something, excepting only one very poor man, which, i; the 
whole, amounted to £50 New York money; King's County, Long 
Island, and many other places, contributed largely. Nay, the soldiers 
of the garrison at Albany, were very zealous, and contributed almost 
beyond belief. The two independent companies of Col. Richard In- 
goldsby, and Col. Peter Matthews, gave £100, every private sentinel 
gave something, some ten shilhngs, and others twenty ; and their offi- 
cers generously. Above £600 was soon subscribed, and in about a 
year and an half, a very handsome stone building was raised, fifty- 
eight feet in length, and forty-two in breadth ; it was opened in No- 
vember, 1716, and divine service performed in it; Mr. Barclay contin- 
ued diligent in all the duties of his mission. Soiretime afterwards, it 
was represented to the Society, that since Mr. Barclay had a salary as 
Chaplain to the Garrison at Albany, that, with the voluntary contribu- 
tions of the people, who came to the new Church, would be a sufficient 
maintenance ; the Society therefore withdrew his salary. But finding 
afterward, that for some years, that Church hath not been supplied, 
they have lately appointed the Rev. Mr. Miln to be missionary there. 

C. Statten Island is a small Island about ten miles long, and five or 
six over, situate on the west end of Long Island, a place well peopled ; 
the Rev. Mr. Mackenzie was sent missionary here in the year 1704, and 
met with a very kind reception from the people, tliough not above one- 
third were English, the rest Dutch and French. The French had a 
minister of their own, and had built a Church. The English had no 
Church, nor any place convenient for divine worship. The French 
allowed Mr. Mackenzie to preach in their Church. The English were 
chiefly Quakers and Anabaptists, the others. Church of England peo- 
ple. The Dutch were at first somewhat averse to, and labored under 
prejudices against our Liturgy. But it appeared soon, that this was 
occasioned by their not being acquainted with it ; for upon the Socie- 
ty's sending a good number of our Common-Prayer Books in Dutch, to 
be distributed among the people, they found no fault with it, and began 
to have a just esteem for our form of worship. It was represented by 
Mr. Mackenzie, that the greatest disadvantage to religion, arose from 
the want of English schools in that Island. The children had no edu- 
cation but the little they received from their parents, and that bound 
them up to their parents' language and principles. Besides, there was 
such a diversity of tongues, as English, French, and Dutch, which made 
it necessary to settle a school there, more than in any other place, in 
order to unite the growing generation in their language, aa well as in 
their religious principles. ^.. , .:,. ^. -. . -,,,- r- 



89 



Humphrey's History of 



\l ii 



The Society were sensible nothing could be more convenient than 
the opening of schools in this place. The whole Island was divided 
into three precincts; they appointed a schoolmaster for each. Mr. 
Brown taught sch ^ol in the South Precinct, Mr. Dupuy in the North, 
and Mr. Williamson in the West Mr. Dupuy did not keep school 
long; Mr. Potts succeeded him. Afterwards, in the year 1715, Mr. 
Taylor was appointed, and continues still teaching school ; and several 
accounts have been sent to the Society, that he teaches above forty 
scholars, without any consideration but the Society's bounty ; that he 
instructs them in the Church-Catechism, with the explanation, teaches 
them to join in public worship, and keeps also a night school for the 
instruction of the negroes, and such as cannot be spared from their 
work in the day time. 

Mr. Mackenzie was very successful in his ministry, united the people 
in their sentiments, and exceedingly improved them in their manners. 
He was also happy in the love and esteem of his people. The Justi- 
ces of Richmond county, in that Island, where his abode was, wrote 
thus to the Society in the year 1712 : " We, Her Majesty's Justices of 
the Peace, High Sheriflf, Clerk, and Commander in Chief, of Her 
Majesty's Militia, in the county of Richmond, as well for ourselves, as 
in the name, and at the desire of the other inhabitants of the said 
county, members of the Church of England, return our thanks, for 
supporting our worthy Pastor, Mr. Mackenzie, among us; whose 
unblamable life affords no occasion of disparagement to his function, 
nor discredit to his doctrine. Upon his first mduction to this place, 
there were not above four or five in the whole county, who ever knew 
anything of our excellent Liturgy and form of worship, and many 
knew little more of any religion, than the common notion of a Deity, 
and as their ignorance was great, so was their practice irregular and 
barbarous. But now, by the blessing of God attending his labors, our 
Church increases, a considerable reformatiua is wrought, and something 
of the face of Christianity is to be seen among us. You have added 
to the former, a fresh and late instance of your bounty, in allowing a 
support to a schoolmaster, for the instruction of our youth ; the deplor- 
able want of which hath been a great affliction to us. 

Soon after, the people began to think of building a Church. Mr. 
Mackenzie had for seven years, ever since his first arrival, officiated in 
the French Church upon sufferance. The people of the Island, and 
the neighboring counties of the Province, made liberal contributions. 
New Jersey and Pennsylvania also gave generously ; £700 was col- 
lected, and a handsome stone Church was erected, a Parsonage-house 
built, and sixty acres of glebe land purchased. The lime, stono, and 
timber, were given gratis, for the Church and house, besides the money 
mentioned. About this time, some gentlemen of New York, Adolphus 
Phillips, Coimsellor, Captain Lancaster Symes, Officer in Fort Anne, Mr. 
Ebenezer Wilson, and Mr. Peter Faulconer, merchants, made a deed of 
gift, of one hundred and fifty acres of land, for the use of the Church. 
The land lay at an inconvenient distance from the Church, so that the 
7 rusteeA agreed to sell it, and buy a piece of ground nearer. Mr. 



as 



Mr. 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



87 



Mackenzie went on with diligence in all the duties of his office, and 
wrote word in 1718, that he had received several new members into the 
Communion of the Church ; that he had a large congregation, who 
not only constantly attended the Church Service, but were most of them 
very regular in their lives and conversations; that he had baptized, in 
the preceding year, eighteen children, one of which was a negro, and 
also an Indian man, twenty-two years of age, who coming accidentally 
into that Island, was induced to learn to read English, then grew 
desirous of being instructed in the Christian faith, and afterwards 
desired baptism. In the year 1722, Mr. Mackenzie died, much regret- 
ted by his parishioners. The Rev. Mr. Harrison succeeded him by the 
appointment of the Governor, William Burnet, Esq.; no recounts have 
been received from him, as not being the Society's missionary. 

7. Long Island lies southeast from New York, and is a very consid- 
erable part of that government ; it is divided from the continent by a 
small arm of the sea ; is one hundred miles long, and about twelve 
broad: a venr fruitful and pleasant country; the air is sharp and 
serene, not subject to any thick fogs. It hath, near Hempsted, an even, 
delightsome plain, sixteen miles long, richly furnished with cattle and 
fowl of all sorts. The Rev. Mr. Thomas was sent Missionary to 
Hempsted in the year 1704. This is one of the chief towns in the 
Island ; the people were generally Independents, some Presbyterians, 
but more negligent of all religion. However, Mr. Thomas, upon his 
arrival, was received with mucn kindness, and be found the chief diffi- 
culty was to remove the prejudices of education. Mr. Thomas had the 
care of Oysterbay too, thirteen miles distant from Hempsted ; this 
made his mission laborious. However, in a little time he persuaded 
many in both places to conform to the Church of England. The 
Society sent him a large number of Common-Prayer Books and Cate- 
chisms, which he distributed among the people ; and they began gener- 
ally to improve in their manners, and to think better of the Church 
worship. He writes in 1709, though that place had been settled above 
sixty years before his coming, and the people had some sort of dissent- 
ing ministers ; yet for above lift y-f'vb years, the Sacrament had never 
been administered there ; the oldest there could not remember to have 
seen or heard of its being celebrated. " The people (says he) having 
lived so long in a disuse of it, I had great difficulties to bring them to 
a sense of the necessity and obligation of it : but with God's blessing 
upon my endeavors, I have brought thirty-three of them into full Com- 
munion with the Church, and who now live very regularly, though at 
the first time of administering it, I could persuade but three to receive." 
He wrote, that there was a great want of schools ; the younger people 
and children were growing up in a miserable ignorance, for want of 
being taught to read ; and he could not perform one part of his pasto- 
ral office, catechising, for want of a schoolmaster to teach the children 
to read. The Society appointed Mr. Gilderslieve schoolmaster there in 
the year 1713, and allowed him a salary to teach the poorer children 
reading, writing, and the rudiments of arithmetic. The Vestry of this 
parish wrote the Society a letter on this occasion, wherein they say : 



88 



Humphrey's History of 



i \< 



" Without your bounty and charity, our poor children would undoubted- 
ly want all education ; our people are poor, and settled distantly from 
one another, and unable to board out their children." The Society sent 
quantities of paper for the use of the school, catechisms, and large num- 
bers of Common-Prayer Books, which proved of great benefit to the 
vounger people. The youth was instructed, made their responses regu- 
larly at Church, and Divine worship was performed with more knowl- 
edge and decency. 

Mr. Thomas persevered with diligence in bis duty, and by easy means 
of persuasion in conversing, drew many people to a conformity. The 
Books he distributed, had a very good influence on the more sober and 
thinking part of the inhabitants. About the year 1720, he acquainted 
the Society that his congregation increased; that within eighteen months 
past, he had baptised above one hundred and sixty, many of which 
were grown persons ; that he endeavored, as much as in him lav, to in- 
culcate into the people a sense of the benefit and privilege of the Sac- 
raments, and finds uiem in the main convinced of the necessity of those 
ordinances. Mr. Thomas died in the year 1724, after having been very 
useful in settling this Church. In the year 1726, the Society removed 
the Rev. Mr. Fenney, upon his request, from Rye to this place. Ac- 
counts have been sent from him, that his congregation increases ; that 
two grown persons had desired and received Baptism, and he had sev- 
eral new communicants, all of them persons of known honesty and pi- 
ety ; particularly one, a negro slave, who had all along preserved his 
character unblemished, or rather made it remarkable for honesty and 
piety. Mr. Fenney continues now there. 

8. Jamaica is a considerable town in Long Island. The Rev. Mr. 
Patrick Gordon was sent thither in 1702, but he died soon after his 
arrival. Colonel Morris wrote of him to the Society, that his abilities, 
sobriety and prudence had gained him the good opinion of every body 
acquainted with him, both of the Church and dissenters, and he gave 
great hopes that a good progress would be made in this mission ; but 
he died soon, and was buried in a meeting-house in Jamaica. The Rev. 
Mr. Urquhart was afterwards fixed in this place. It was inhabited 
chiefly by independents, who came from New England. He was very 
diligent m his mission, and well respected by all the members of the 
Church, but died in about two years. The Rev. Mr- Poyer was sent 
there in 1709. He had a long and dangerous voyage from England, 
and at last was shipwrecked with his family on the coast of America, 
above one hundred miles distant from his parish. He got there, and 
was, by the governor's order, inducted into that Church. But the in- 
dependents had got possession of the parsonage-house, and would not 
surrender it. This occasioned long feuds and divisions in the parish, 
between the Church party and them. At last, after a long broil and 
tedious course of law, for above ten years, Mr. Poyer was put in posses- 
sion of the house. This perverseness of the independents very much 
hindered the success of his mission. However, Mr. Poyer was very 
diligent in his duty ; he had a large cure, three towns, Jamaica, New- 
town, and Flushing, and he spared no charge nor labor in serving them. 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



80 



posses- 
much 



The members of the Church of England wrote very respectfully of 
him to the Society in these words. " Notwithstanding the perverse be- 
havior of our enemies, we can with joy say, our Church here hath in- 
creased considerably, both in the number of hearers and of commu- 
nicants, by the singular care, pains and industry of our present labo- 
rious minister, Mr. Foyer, who, notwithstanding the many difficulties ho 
hath struggled with, hath never been in the least wanting in the due 
execution of his ministerial function ; but rather, on the contrary, 
strained himself beyond his strength, in traveling through the parish, 
and often to the prejudice of his oealth, which is notorious to all the 
inhabitants." Mr. Foyer continues now there, and accounts have been 
sent that his congregation is increased. The communicants are between 
eighty and ninety, and nine grown persons have been baptized within 
three years' space. 

9. The Society have, from their first establishment, paid salaries to 
several schoolmasters in this government Mr. Gilderslieve at Hemp- 
stead, in Long Island, and Mr. Taylor in Statten Island, have been 
mentioned already. Mr. Huddlestone was appointed schoolmaster in 
New York City, in the year 1709 ; he taught forty poor children for 
the Society's allowance only ; he publicly catechized, in the steeple of 
Trinity Church, on Sunday in the afternoon, not only his own scholars, 
but also the children, servants and slaves of the inhabitants, and above 
a hundred persons usually attended him. Certificates attested by the 
mayor of New York were annually sent to the Society, certifying his 
doing such service. He died in the year 1726, and his son, being de- 
sirous and capable of the office, is appointed now in his room. Mr. 
Glover was appointed schoolmaster at West Chester in the year 1714, 
and afterwards Mr. Foster ; he teaches between thirty and forty chil- 
dren, catechizes on Saturday and Sunday, which is certified by the min- 
ister and chief inhabitants of that town. Mr. Cleator was settled 
schoolmaster at Rye, in the year 1704 ; he teaches about fifty children 
to read and write, and instructs them in the catechism. And Mr. Den- 
ton hath been lately appointed schoolmaster at Oyster Bay, in Long 
Island. 

The Society have paid salaries to six schoolmasters, besides a cate- 
chist for the slaves at New York in this government ; and have sent 
Bibles, Common-Prayers, and other books of devotion or instruction, 
to the number of two thousand, two hundred and twenty volumes, be- 
sides catechisms and small tracts, which have been dispersed among 
the people by the missionaries, or among the children by the school- 
masters. And though there was not above one Church, that at New 
York City, opened before the Society's foundation, there have been ten 
since built, many donations made to them, the people supplied with 
missionaries for them, and all the congregations now continue increas- 
ing in number of persons, and regularity of manners. 

12 



Humphrey's History of the 



CHAPTER X. 

The Society very earnest to promote the instruction of the Negroes. 
The Negroes an exceed 'ng great number of persons. The Society 
direct all their Missionaries to give their best assistance. The So- 
ciety settle a School at New York citijfor instructing the Negroes. 
Mr. Neau, Catechist there, very industrious, instructs many. The 
Negroes conspire to destroy the English. The plot proves unsuc- 
cessful, many of the Negroes taken and executed. The School is 
again encouraged for converting the Negroes. Mr. Neau dies. The 
JReverend Mr. Colgan appointed Catechist. \ 

1. After the foregoing account of the settling the Church in New 
York Government among the English inhabitants, it seems proper 
next, to give a narrative of the Society's endeavors towards convertmg 
the negro slaves, and native Indians ; because their chief attempts to- 
wards this end, have been among the negro slaves in this Government ; 
and the Iroquois, the six Indian Nations bordering on this country. 
The following account therefore may not improperly be considered as 
a part of the history of this countiy. 

The negro slaves even in those colonies, where the Society send mis- 
sionaries, amount to many thousand of persons, of both sexes, and all 
ages, and most of them are very capable of receiving instruotiv/n. 
Even the grown persons brought from Guinea, quickly learned Ei-glish 
enough to be understood in ordinary matters ; out uie children bom 
of negro parents in the colonies, are bred up entirely in the English 
langu^. 

2. The Society looked upon the instruction and conversion of the ne- 
groes, as a principal branch of their care; esteeming it a great reproach 
to the Christian name, that so many thousands of persons should con- 
tinue in the same state of Pagan darkness, under a Christian govern- 
ment, and living in Christian families ; as they lay before under, in 
their own heathen countries. The Society, immediately from their 
first institution, strove to promote their conversion ; and inasmuch as 
their income would not enable them to send numbers of catechists, 
sufficient to instruct the negroes; yet they resolved to do their utmost, 
and at least, to give this work the mark of their highest approbation. 

They wrote therefore to all their missionaries, that they should use 
their best endeavors, at proper times, to instruct the negroes ; and 
should especially take occasion, to recommend it zealously to the mas- 
ters, to order their slaves at convenient times, to come to them, that 
they might be instructed. These directions had a good effect, and 
some hundreds of negroes have been instructed, received baptism, and 
been admitted to the Communion, and lived very orderly lives. The 
reader may remember, there is frequently mention made above, in the 
account oi the labors of the missionaries, of many negroes at differ- 






The Propagation Society, ^. 



ai 



ent times instructed and baptized ; to relate the particulars here, would 
be too circumstantial, and altngutber useless. 

It is a matter of commendation to the Clergy, that they have done 
thus much in so great and difficult a work, liut alas ! what is the 
instruction of a few hundreds, in several years, with respect to the many 
thousands uninstructed, unconverted, livuig, dying, utter Pagans. It 
must be confessed, what hath been duiiu is as nothing, with regard to 
what a true Christian would hope to see etlected. Ijut the difficulties 
the Clergy meet with in this good work are exceedingly great. The 
first is the negroes want time to receive instruction. Several masters al- 
low their negroes Sundays only, for rest ; and then the minister of a 
parish is fully employed in other duties, and cannot attend them. 
Many Planters, in order to free themselves from the trouble and charge 
of feeding and cloathing their slaves, allow them one day in a week, 
to clear ground and plant it, to subsist themselves and families. 
Some allow all Saturday, some half Saturday and Sunday ; others al- 
low only Sunday. How can the negro attend for instruction, who on 
half Saturday and Sunday is to provide food and raiment for himself 
and family for the week following ? The negro will urge in his own 
excuse, that the support of himself, and all that is dear to him, doth 
absolutely depend upon this, his necessary labor on Saturday and Sun- 
day. If this be not strictly justifiable, yet it is sure, the miserable 
man's plea, will engage the reader's compassion. 

This is the case in some colonies, in others it differs. In some places, 
the slaves do the whole labor of the country, in the field ; in others, 
they are used only as house servants. Another difficulty arises from 
the habitations and settlements of the masters being at great distances 
from each other in most places in the colonies ; for which reason, 
neither can a minister go to many families, if the negroes were allowed 
time to attend him ; nor can a proper number of them assemble to- 
gether at one place, without considerable loss of time to their masters. 
But the greatest obstruction is, the masters themselves do not consider 
enough, the obligation which lies upon them, to have their slaves in- 
structed. Some have been so weak as to argue, the negroes had no 
souls ; others, that they grew worse by being taught, and made Chris- 
tians. I would not mention these, if they were not popular argments 
now, because they have no foundation in reason or truth. 

3. After the Society had given the general order mentioned before, 
to all their missionanes, for the instruction of the slaves, they agreed 
to use another method, which they believe would more successfully 
promote this work. They opened a catechising school for the slaves at 
New York, in the year 1704, in which city there were computed to be 
about fifteen hundred negro and Indian slaves, and many of their 
masters well disposed to have them made Christians. The Society 
hoped this example set, might kindle a zeal in some other good people, 
to carry on this work, which they were uhable to effect; and. to erect 
schools for instruction of the negroes, and employ catechists to teach 
them at appointed times ; and the legislature in the colonies would. 








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Humphrey's History of 



by a law, oblige all slaves to attend for their instructioii. ThelSociety 
found soon, it was not easy to procure a person proper to be a cate- 
chist. Mr. EHas Neau, a layman, then living in New York dty, as a 
trader, was represented to be the properest pereon for that office. He 
was by nation a Frenchman, had maae a confession of the Protestant 
religion in France, for which he had been confined several years in pris- 
on, and seven years in the gallies. When he got released, he went to 
New York, and traded there, and had the character, from people of all 
persuasions, of a man of piety, of sober deportment, and serious life. 

He accepted of the offer of being catechist ; and his former suffer- 
ings on the account of his religion, did, with great advantage, recom- 
mend him to be a teacher of the Christian Faith ; and his humUity 
enabled him to bear with the many inconveniencies in teaching those 
poor people. He entered upon his office, in the year 1704, with great 
diligence. At first he was obliged to go from house to house, to 
instruct the negroes; this was out of measure laborious; afterwards he 
got leave, that they should come to his house ; this was a considerable 
relief. There were two obstructions still; the time was much too short, 
and the place was inconvenient, for teaching the great number of ne- 
groes. A little time in the dusk of the evening, after hard labor all day, 
was the whole time allow^ them for learning, and for relaxation, and to 
visit their wives and children ; which were generally in other families, not 
in their masters'. At this time their bodies were so fatigued, that their 
attention could not be great They were dull and sleepy, and remem- 
bered they must rise early the next day, to their labor. The place 
also was mcommodious, oeing the uppermost floor of Mr. Neau's house, 
which, though very large for a private house, yet was not able to hold 
conveniently, a small part of the slaves which might resort thither. 

Besides, the negroes were much discouraged from embracing the 
Christian religion, upon account of the very little regard showed them 
in any religious respect Their marriages were performed by mutual 
consent only, without the blessing of the Church ; they were buried 
by those of their own country or complexion, in the common field, 
without any Christian office ; perhaps some ridiculous heathen rites 
were performed at the grave, by some of their own people. No no- 
tice was given of their being sick, that they might be visited ; on the 
contrary, frequent discourses were made in conversation, that they had 
no souls, and perished as the beasts. 

Mr. Neau contended with these difficulties, and notwithstanding all, 
proved an instrument of bringing many to a knowledge of the Christ- 
ian Faith. He took sreat pains in reading to them, in making short 
collections out of books on the catechism, and making an abstract of 
the historical part of the Scriptures ; so chat many, who could not read, 
could yet by memory repeat the history of the creation of the world, 
the flood, the giving of the law, the birth, miracles, and Crucifixion of 
our Lord, and the chief articles and doctrines of Christianity. 

This was a work of great pains and humility ; Mr. Neau performed 
it diligently ; discoursing familiarly with those poor people, and laboi^ 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



98 



ing earaeBdy to accommodate his discoarse to their capacities. His 
labors were very successful ; a considerable number of slaves, could 
give a sufScient account of the grounds of their faith ; as several of 
the Clergy who examined them publicly, before they gave them baptism, 
have acquainted the Society. 

4. In the mean time, while the Society were thinking of farther 
ways to advance this work, a calamity happened which mightily dis- 
couraged this country from promoting the instruction of their slaves. 
In the year 1712, a considerable number of negroes of the Carmantee 
and Pappa Nations, formed a plot to destroy tSX the English, in order 
to obtam their liberty ; and kept their conspiracy so secret, that there 
was no suspicion of it, till it came to the veiy execution. However, 
the plot was, by God's Providence, happily defeated. The plot was 
this : The negroes sat fire to a house in York city, on a Sunday night, 
in April, about the going down of the moon. The fire alarmed the 
town, who from all parts ran to it ; the conspirators planted themselves 
in several streets and lanes leading to the fire, and shot or stabbed the 
people as they were running to it. Some of the wounded escaped, and 
acquainted the Oovemment, and presently by the signal of firing a great 
gun from the fort, the inhabitants were called under arms, and prevent- 
ed from running to the fire. A body of men was soon raised, which 
easily scattered Uie negroes ; they had killed about eight persons, and 
wounded twelve more. In their flight some of them shot themselves, 
others their wives, and then themselves ; some absconded a few days and 
then killed themselves for fear of being taken ; but a great many were 
taken, and eighteen of them suffered death. This wicked conspiracy was 
at first apprehended to be general among all the negroes, and opened the 
mouths of many, to speak against giving the negroes instruction. Mr. 
Neau durst hardly appear abroad for some days, his school was blamed as 
the main occasion of this barbarous plot But upon the trial of these 
wretches, there were but two, of alibis school, so much as charged with 
the plot ; and only one was a baptized man, and in the people's heat, 
upon slender evidence, perhaps too hastily condemned ; for soon after 
he was acknowledged to be innocent by the common voice. The other 
was not baptized ; it appeared plain that he was in the conspiracy, but 
guiltless of his master's murder, Mr. Hoogh lands, an eminent merchant 
Upon full trial, the guilty negroes were round to be such as never came 
to Mr. Neau's school ; and what is very observable, the persons, whose 
negroes were found to be most guilty, were such as were the declared 
opposers of making them Christians. 

However, a great jealousy was now raised, and the common cry was 
very loud, against instructing the negroes. The Common Council of 
New York city made an order, forbidding the negroes to go about the 
streets after sunset, without lanthorns and candles; this was in efiect, 
forbidding them to go to Mr. Neau's school, for none of them could get 
lanthorns, or come to him before sunset. But some time after, the more 
serious and moderate people, abated of this violence. It appeared to 
be a plot of a few only, not a general one of all the negroes ; no con- 



94 



Humphrey's History of 



sequence attended the action, and peeople grew more composed. Rob- 
ert Hunter, Esq., then Governor of the Province, observed their fean 
were ill-grounded, and that Mr. Neau's scholars were not the guilty 
negroes, and therefore, in order to support the design of instructing 
them, he was pleased to visit the school, attended by the Society's 
missionaries, and several persons of note, and publicly declared his 
approbation of the design ; and afterwards in a Proclamation put out 
against immorality and vice, he recommended it to the clergy of the 
country, to exhort their congregations from the pulpit, to promote the 
instruction of the negroes. 

This gave new life again to the work, and the negroes frequented Mr. 
Neau's school ; several were instructed, afterwards examined publicly in 
the Church, before the congregation, by the Rev. Mr. Vesey, gave a 
very satisfactory account of their faith, and received Baptism. The 
Society had accounts from time to time, of Mr. Neau's diligence and 
good success; particularly one very ample testimonial signed by the 
Governor of the country, (Robert Hunter, Esq.,) the Council, the 
Mayor, and Recorder of New York, and the two Chief Justices ; setting 
forth, ^ That Mr. Neau had demeaned himself in all things, as a good 
Christian and a good subject; that in his station of catechist, he had, 
to the great advancement of religion in general, and the particular 
benefit of the free Indians, negro slaves, and other heathens in those 
parts, with indefatigable zeal and application, performed that service 
three times a week ; and that they did sincerely believe, that as cate- 
chist, he did in a very eminent degree, deserve the countenance, favor, 
and protection of the Society." 

The Society were fully satisfied with Mr. Neau's behavior, and con- 
tinued to send him numbers of catechisms, and of small tracts of devo- 
tion and instruction, to give among the slaves and servants at his dis- 
cretion. Mr. Neau persevered with the same diligence, till the year 
1*722, in which he died, much regretted by all who knew his labors. 
Mr. Huddlestone, then schoolmaster in New York, did for sometime 
supply his place, and used to teach the negroes, in the Church steeple, 
every Sunday before sermon, and at his own house after sermon. In a 
little time the Society sent the Rev. Mr. Wetmore to be catechist there, 
and received accounts of his discharging his duty diligently. That he 
attended catechising every Wednesday and Friday, and Sunday 
evening, at his own house ; and in the Church, every Sunday before 
evening service, where he had sometimes near two hundred children, 
servants and negroes. He afterwards desired to be appointed mission- 
ary at Rye in that government, and the Society complied with his re- 
quest soon after his removal, the Rector, Church-Wardens, and 
Vestry of Trinity Church in New York, made a representation to the 
Society, of the great need of a catechist in that city, there being about 
fourteen hu:^dred negroes and Indian slaves there, a considerable num- 
ber of which, had been instructed in the principles of Christianity, by 
the late Mr. Neau, and had received baptism, and were communicants 
in their Church. The Society were very willing to comply with this 



The Propagation Society, ^. 



95 



request, and sent the Rev. Mr. Colgan, in 1720, to be catechist there: 
ana here he begins his school with success, hath thirty, forty, or fifty 
negroes at a time, attending catechisnn, and is preparing sevenu for bap- 
tism. He continues now mere. 

6. In this manner have the Society exerted themselves, to promote 
the instruction of the negroes ; but they are sensible the means used, 
are not proportionate to the end. One school only, opened, is but a 
small matter ; because the missionaries, in their large Parishes, are folly 
employed, without this additional labor. There ought to be a catechist 
supported in every Colony, nay, every large town, to cany on this work 
edectually. But there remains one obstruction, which, if not removed, 
will defeat all jpossible endeavors. The masters of the slaves must be 
persuaded to aUow them reasonable time to be instructed, and at least 
permit them to attend the catechist For if the masters command 
them not to attend, or will allow them no time for that purpose, this 
work is impracticable. On the other hand, it ^hath appetued plain to 
the Society, that it might easilv be carried on if the masters concurred. 
There are some instances, where the negroes have in a little time, 
gained a suflScient knowledge of our faith, and been induced to lead 
sober lives, when their masters favored their instruction. The Rev. Mr. 
Taylor, lately missionary at St Andrew's Parish, in South Carolina, 
wrote to the Society in 1713, an instance of this nature; which for the 
just honor of the two religious gentlewomen mentioned, ought not to 
be passed over here. " Mrs. Haige and Mrs. Edwards, who came lately 
to this plantation, have taken extraordinary pains to instruct a consid- 
erable number of negroes, in the principles of the Christian religion, and 
to reclaiih and reform them. The wonderfol success they met with, in 
about half a year's time, encouraged me to go and examine those 
negroes, about their knowledge in Christianity ; thev declared to me 
their faith in the chief Articles of our religion, which they sufSciendy 
explained; they rehearsed by heart very distinctly, the Creed, the 
Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments ; fourteen of them gave me so 
great satisfaction, and were so very desirous to be bapti^, that I 
tiiought it my duty to do it on the last Lord's day. I doubt not but 
these gentlewomen will prepare the rest of them for baptism in a little 
time ; and I hope the good example of these two gentlewomen, will 
provoke at least some masters and mistresses, to take the same care and 
pains with their poor negroes." 

The Clergy of South Carolina did, in a joint letter to the Society, 
after a representation made of the state of the Church there, acquaint 
them, that Mr. Skeen, his lady, and Mrs. Haige, his sister, did use great 
care to have their negroes instructed and baptized. And the Rev. Mr. 
Vamod, missionary in that Parish, did, at the same time, write to the 
Society, that he had baptized in the foregoing year, eight negro 
children, belonging to Mr. Skeen^and Mrs. Haige, who, he says, "took 
great pains to have their slaves instructed in our faith, and that, at 
once, he had nineteen negroes communicants." 



",^i<»' 



I 



'IM Humphrey's History of 

The Society have been always sensible, the most effectual way to con* 
vert the negroes, was by engaging their masters to countenance and 
promote their conversion, 'ihe late Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Fleetwood, 
preached a Sermon before this Society in the year 1711, setting forth 
the duty of instructing the negroes in the Christian religion. The 
Society thought this so useful a Discourse, that they printed and disper- 
sed abroad in the plantations, great numbers of that sermon in the 
same vear ; and lately in the year 1725, re-printed the same, and dis- 
persed again large numbers. The present Bishop of London (Dr. Gib- 
son) becMne a second advocate for the conversion of the negroes ; 
and wrote two Letters on this subject. The jfirst, addressed to the 
masters and mistresses of fiimilies in the English plantations abroad, ex- 
horting them to encourage and promote the instructioD of their ne^;roes 
in the Christian faith. The second to the missionaries there ; direct- 
ing them to distribute the said Letter, and exhorting them to give their 
assistance towards the instruction of the negroes within their several 
parishes. 

The Society were persuaded this was the true method to remove the 
great obstruction of their conversion, and hoping so particular an ap- 

Elication to the masters and mistresses from the See of London, would 
ave the strongest influence ; they printed ten thousand copies of the 
Letters to the masters and mistresses, which have been sent to all the 
colonies on the continent, and to all our Islands in the West Indies, to be 
distributed among the masters of families, and other inhabitants. The 
Society have received accounts, that these Letters have influenced manv 
masters of families to have their negroes instructed ; and hope they wiu 
have at length, the desired effect. 

The Bishop of London soon after wrote an Address to serious Chris- 
tians among ourselves, to assist the Society for propagating the Gospel 
in carrying on this work ; a number of copies whereof hath oeen printed 
and dispersed in several places in England. The Address and Letters 
follow next. 

An Address to Seriotts Christiana among ourselves, to assist the So- 
ciety for propagating the Gospel in carrying on the work of instruct' 
ing the negroes in our plantations abroad. 

The design of the two following letters, which have been lately sent to 
our plantations abroad is, 1. To convince the masters and mistresses 
there, of the obliffation they are under, to instruct their negroes in 
the Christian religion. 11. To answer the objections that are usually 
made against it. And, IIL To exhort the ministers and schoolmasters 
within vxe several parishes, to assist in this good work, as far as the 
pr^>er business of their stations will permit. 

But the negroes in several of the plantations being vastly numerous, 
and the parishes very large, the utmost that ministers and schoolmas- 
ters can do, will fall far short of the necessary attendance and applica- 
tion which this work requires. And it is too plain from expenence, 
that very many of the masters and mistresses are either unable or un- 



T%e Propagation Society, 4*^. 



07 



willing to provide for the instruction of those poor creatures, at least in 
such a way as may effectually attain the end ; and wherever that is the 
case, thev are unavoidably condemned, in a Christian country, to live 
and die m heathen idolatry, and in an utter ignorance of the trueOod. 

This is a very deplorable sight in a country where the Gospel of Christ 
is professed and publicly preached ; and every Christian who believes 
the promises of the Gospel, and is concerned in earnest for the honor of 
Ghnst, and the salvation of souls, must be sensibly affected with the 
thought of it Which will of course lead and dispose him to counte- 
nance and support any measures that shall be entered into, for doing 
jusUce to our common Christianity, and delivering the Protestant name 
from so great a reproach. For to do right to the papists, both the in- 
habitants of their plantations abroad, and the several countries in Europe 
to which they belong, have shown a laudable care and concern ii this 
matter. Only, it is to be wished that their care to see them instruv 'ed, 
were equal to their zeal to have them baptized ; and that greater stress 
were laid upon bringing them to a knowledee of the Christian &ith, 
than upon barely giving them the name of Christians. 

The Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, have this 
affair much at heart ; and, havmg lately oad it under their consideration, 
are unanimously of opinion, that nothing would give so quick and ef- 
fectual a progress to the work, as the sending catechists from hence : 
whose only business it should be, to instruct the negroes, within partic- 
ular districts to be assigned to them, and who, having no avocations of 
any kind, would be at full liberty to attend the most proper times 
and seasons for instruction, and employing their thoughts wholly in 
that way, would be far better acquainted with the proper methods of pro- 
ceeding in the work, and also pursue those methods more closely, tlian 
any oaxuional instructor can be supposed to do. 

JBut the present yearly subscriptions of the Society are employed in 
maintaining ministers in the plantations, to officiata to our own people, 
in places where they are not able to support the charge themselves, and 
where they would quickly fall into a state of heathenism, or something 
like it, if provision were not made for a standing ministry among them. 
So that the Society can be in no condition to maintain catechists for the 
instruction of the negroes, unless pious and well disposed Christians 
among ourselves shall lay this matter to heart, and enable them to pro-> 
ceed in it by contributions given for that purpose and to be solely op- 
propriated to that use. 

The piety, as well as the necessity and importance, of promoting this 
work, and entering into proper methods for that end, are set forth in 
the following letters, to which the reader is referred. But lest this should 
seem to be only the concern of the planters abroad, I will add some 
considerations which may induce all Christians as such, to think it a 
work worthy of their regard, and incline them to further it according to 
their power and ability. 

1. The first is, that as the Christian Church upon earth is one, being 
joined together in the same faith, and in the common bond of love and 

13 



Humphrey's History of 

vnity, under Christ its Head ; so the supporting and enlarging of that 
Church, is justly to be esteemed the common eaute of Christianity, or 
in other words, the general concern of Christians, all the world over. 
And if we do not desire to see it propagated throughout the world, it 
is a certain siffn, that we are not suificiently concerned for the honor of 
Christ, nor duly sensible of the greatness of the gospel promises, and of 
the inestimable value of a soul. 

2. From hence it follows, that although our own families, relations, 
neighbors, and country, claim the first place in our care and concern 
for religion, yet no distance of place, how great soever it be, is a suffi- 
cient excuse from endeavoring to propagate the gospel, where we see 
there is need and a fit opportunity offers, and it is fairly in our power. 
On the contrary, the more remote we are from the country to which we 
do at any time extend our care and assistance, the greater testimony it 
is of our zeal for the glory of God, and the salvation of souls. 

3. But, thirdly, the souls for which I am now pleading, have a more 
particular claim to our regard, as they are truly a part of our own na- 
tion, and live under the same government with ourselves, and which is 
more, contribute much by their labor to the support of our government, 
and the increase of the ^ade and wealth of this kingdom. In the fol- 
lowing Letter, the masters in the plantations are put in mind of the 
great profit arising to them from the labor of the negroes, as one argu- 
ment why they should be willing to be at some expense in instructing 
them. And the same argument extends, in proportion to this nation 
in general, which is greatly benefitted by their labor ; and more particu- 
lary does it extend to such among us, who either have possessions in 
those parts, or have been enriched by trading to them. 

4. As the progress which one single catechist makes, may be very 
great, when it is his whole employment ; so every person who contn- 
Dutes to the maintenance of that one, has the satisfaction to think that 
he is an instrument under God, of converting and saving a proportion- 
able number of souls. Some few seeds cast into this ground, and water- 
ed by the blessing of God, may produce an increase exceeding gi'eat, 
and will be no small addition to our happiness in heaven. But what- 
ever the success be, such sincere testimonies of a desire to see the gospel 
propagated, and such charitable endeavors for the salvation of our fel- 
low-creatures, will most assuredly find a very plentiful reward from the 
hands of God. 

And may it please Him to open the hearts of Christians, and to dispose 
them according to their several abilities, to assist in carrying on this 
good work, for the glory of His name, and the eternal welrare of so 
many thousand souls. 



The Propagation Socieijf, ^, 






LETTElt L 

The Biahop of London^ a Letter to the Maetera and Miatreaaea qf Fami- 
lies in the Eagliah Plantations abroad ; exhorting them ^ encourage 
and promote the inatrtiction of their negroea in the Chriatian faith. 

The care of the plantations abroad being committed to the Bishop 
of London as to religious affairs, I have thought it my duty to make 
particular inquiries into the state of religion in those parts, and to learn, 
among other things, what number of slaves are employed within the 
several governments, and what means are used for their instruction in 
the Christian faith. I find the numbers are prodigiously great ; and 
am not a little troubled to observe how small a prog;re8s hasl>een made 
in a Christian country, towards the delivering those poor creatures from 
the pagan darkness and superstition in which they were bred, and the 
makmg them partakers of the light of the Gospel, and of the blessings 
and benefits belonging to it And, which is yet more to be laments, 
I find there has not only been very little progress made in the work, 
but that all attempts towards it have been by too many industriously 
discouraged and hmdered ; partly, by magnifying the difiSculties of the 
work beyond what they really are, and partly, by mistaken suggestions 
of the change which baptism would make in the condition of the 
negroes to the loss and disadvantage of their masters. 

I. As to the difficulties, it may be pleaded, that the negroes are 
grown persons when they come over, and that having been accustomed 
to the pagan rites and idolatries of their own country, they are preju- 
diced against all other religions, and more particularly against the 
Christian, as forbidding all that licentiousness which is usually practised 
among the heathens. But it this were a good argument against at- 
tempting the conversion of r ^r^jes, it would follow, that the Gospel is 
never to be further propagate:.- than it is at present, and that no en- 
deavors are to be used for the conversion of heathens, at any time, or 
in any country whatsoever ; because all heathens have been accustomed 
to pagan rites and idolatries, and to such vicious and licentious living 
as the Christian religion forbids. But yet, God be thanked, heathens 
have been converted and Christianity propagated, in all ages and almost 
all countries, through the zeal and diligence of pious and good men ; 
and this, without the help of miracles. And if the present age be as' 
zealous and diligent in pursuing the proper means of conversion, we 
have no reason to doubt but that the Divine assistance is and will be 
the same in all ages. 

But a farther difficulty is, that they are utter strangers to our lan- 
guage and we to theirs ; and the gift of tongues being now ceased, 
there is no means left of instructing them in the doctrines of the Chris- 
tian religion. And this, I own, is a real difficulty, as long as it con- 
tinues and as far as it reaches. But, if I am rightly informed, many of 
the negroes who are grown persons when they come over, do of them- 
selves attain so much of our language as enables them to understand 



tiO 



Humphrey'i Hittory of 



and (o be understood in things which oonoeni the ordinuy bosineM of 
life ; and they who can so so fkr of their own accord, might doubtless 
be canried much fiurUier if proper methods and endeavors were used to 
bring them to a competent Icnowledge of our langui^ with a pious 
view to the instructing them in the doctrines of our religion. At leasti 
ftome of them, who are more capable and more serious than the rest, 
might be easily instructed both m our language and religion, and then 
be made use of to convey instruction to the rest in their own language. 
And this, one would hope, may be done with great ease wherever there 
is a hearty and sincere seal for the work. 

But whatever difficulties there may be in instructing those who are 
grown up before they are brought over, there are not the like difficul- 
ties in the case of their children, who are born and bred in our planta- 
tions, who have never been accustomed to pagan rites and superstitions, 
and who may easily be trained up, like all other children, to any Ian- 
guaffe whatsoever, and particularly to our own ; if the making them 
good Christians be sincerely the desire and intention of those who have 
the property in them and the sovemraent over them. 

But supposinff the difficulties to be much greater than I imf^ne, 
they are not such as render the work impossible, so as to leave no hope 
of any degree of success ; and nothing less than an impossibility of doing 
any good at all, can warrant our giving over and laying aside all means 
and endeavors where the propagation of the Gospel and the saving of 
souls are immediately concerned. 

Many undertakings look far more impracticable before trial than they 
, are afterwards found to be in experience, especially where there is not 
a good heart to go about them. And it is frequently observed that 
small beginnings, when pursued with resolution, are attended with 
great and surprising success. But in no case is the success more great 
and surprising than when good men engage in the cause of Gk>d and 
religion, out of a just sense of the inestimable value of a soul, and in a 
full and well-grounded assurance that their honest designs and endea- 
vors for the promoting religion, will be supported by a special blessing 
from God. 

I am loath to think so hardly of any Christian master, as to suppose 
that he can deliberately hinder his negroes from being instructed in the 
Christian faith, or, which is the same thing, that he can, upon sober 
and mature consideration of the case, finallv resolve to deny them the 
means and opportunities of instruction. Much less may I believe that 
he can, after he has seriously weighed this matter, permit them to labor 
on the Lord's day ; and least of all, that he can put them under a kind 
of necessity of laboring on that day to provide themselves with the 
conveniences of life; since our religion so plainly teaches us that God 
has given one day in seven to be a day of rest, not only to man, but 
to the beasts ; that it is a day which is appointed by Uim for the im- 
provement of the soul as well as the refreshment of the body ; and that 
It is a duty incumbent upon masters to take care that all persons who 
are under their government keep this day holy, and employ it to the 



Th9 Propagaiiofk^Socwty, 4«> 



lot 



yam and wise puipoMt for which God, our great Lord and Mastaiv 
intended it Nor can I think so hardly of any mini(»)aiy who shidl 
he desired hy the master to direct and aaeiit m the instruction of his 
negroes, (eitner on that day or on any other when he shall be more at 
leisure,) as to suppose (hat he will not embrace such invitation with 
the utmost readiness and cheerfulness, and |pve all the help that is 
iUriy consistent with the necessary duties of his function as a parochial 
minister. 

If.it be said that no time can be spared from the daily labor and 
employment of the neffroes to instruct them in the Christian religion, 
this is in effect to say, uiat no consideration pf propagating the Qospel 
of (jk)d, or saving the souls of men, is to make the least abatement from 
the temporal profit of the masters ; and that God cannot or wUl not 
make up the little they may lose in that way, by blessing and pros- 
pering their undertakings by sea and land, as a just reward of their 
zeal for his gloiy and the salvation of men's souls. In this case I may 
well reason as St. Paul does in a case not unlike it, that if they make 
you partakers of their temporal things (of their strength and spirits, 
and even of their o&pring) you ought to make them partakers of your 
spiritual things, though it should abate somewhat from the profit which 
you might otherwise receive from their labors. And considering the 
ffreatness of the profit that is received from their labors, it might be 
hoped that all Christian masters, those especially who are possessed of 
considerable numbers, should also be at some small expense in provi- 
ding for the instruction of those poor creatures ; and that others whose 
numbers are less, and who dwell m the same neighborhood, should join 
in the expense of a common teacher for the negroes belonging to them. 
The Society for Fropaffating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, are sufficiently 
sensible of the great importance and necessity of such an established 
and regular provision for the instruction of the negroes, and earnestly 
wish and pray that it may please God to put it into the hearts of good 
Christians to enable them to assist in the work by seasonable contri- 
butions for that end; but at present their fund does scarce enable. them 
to answer the many demands of missionaries for the performance of 
divine service in the poorer settlements, which are not in a condition to 
maintain them at their own charge. 

IL But it is further pleaded, tibat the instruction of heathens in the 
Christian faith is in order to their baptism, and that not only the time 
to be allowed for instructing them would be an abatement from the 
profits of their labor, but also that the baptizing them when instructed, 
would destroy both the property which the masters have in them as 
slaves bought with their money, and the right of selling them again at 
pleasure; and that the making them Christians only makes them less 
diligent and more ungovernable. 

To which it may be very truly replied, that Christianity and the embra- 
cing of the Gospel does not make the least alteration in civil property, 
or in any of the duties which belong to civil relations ; but in all these 
respects it continues persons just in the same state as it found them. 



103 



Humphrfjf's Hiitory of 



The freedom which CShrittianity ffiTM is » freedom from the bondage 
of sin and satan, and from the dominion ci men's lusts and passions 
and inordinate desires ; but as to their outward condition, whatever that 
was before, whether bond or free, their being baptized and becoming 
Ohristians makes no manner of change in it. As St Paul has expressly 
told us, 1 Cor. vii, 20, where he is speaking directly to this very point, 
''Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called;'' and 
at the twenty-fourth verse, '* Let every man wherein he is called therein 
abide with God." And so tu is Christianity fivm discharging men 
from the duties of the station and condition in which it found them, 
that it lays them under stronger obligations to perform those duties 
with the greatest diligence and fidelity, not only from the fear of men, 
l>ut from a sense of duty to God, and the belief and expectation of a 
future account So that to say, that Christianity tends to make men 
less observant of their duty in any respect, is a reproach that it is very 
fiur from deserving, and a reproach that is confuted by the whole tenor 
of the Gk)spel precepts, which inculcate upon all, and particularly upon 
servants, (many of whom were then in the condition of slaves,) a faith- 
ful and diligent discharge of the duties belonging to their several sta- 
tions, out of conscience towards God. And it is also confuted by our 
own reason, which tells us how much more forcible and constant the 
restraint of conscience is than the restraint of fear ; and last of all, it is 
confuted by experience, which teaches us the ffreat value of those serv- 
Ants who are truly religious, compared with uose who have no sense 
of religion. 

As to their being more ungovernable after baptism than before, it is 
certain that the Gospel everywhere enjoins, not only diligence and 
fidelity, but also obedience for conscience' sake; and does not deprive 
masters of any proper methods of enforcing obedience, where they 
•appear to be necessary. Humanity forbids all cruel and barbarous 
treatment of our fellow-creatures, and will not suffer us to consider a 
being that is endowed with reason, upon a level with brutes, and Chris- 
tianity takes not out of the hands of superiors any degrees of strictness 
and severity that fairly appear to be necessary for the preserving sub- 
jection and ffovemment The general law, both of humanity and of 
Christianity, is kindness, gentleness, and compassion towards all man- 
kind, of what nation or condition soever they be ; and therefore we are 
to make the exercise of those amiable virtues our choice and desire, and 
to have recourse to severe and rigorous methods unwillingly, and only 
out of necessity. Of this necessity you yourselves remain the judges, 
as much after they receive baptism as before ; so that you can be in no 
danger of suffering by the change; and as to them, the greatest hard- 
ships that the most severe master can inflict upon them, is not to be 
compared to the cruelty of keeping them in the state of heathenism, 
«nd depriving them of the means of salvation as reached forth to all 
mankind in ue Gospel of Christ And, in truth, one great reason why 
severity is at all necessary to maintain government is the want of re- 
hgum in those who are to be governed, and who therefore are not to 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



108 






be kept to their duty by anything but fear and terror; than whioh 
there cannot be a more uneasy state either to those who govern or 
those who are governed. 

III. That these things may make the greater impression upon yon, 
let me beseech you to consider yourselves not only as masters, but aa 
Christian masters, who stand obliged by your profession to do all thai 
your station and condition enable you to do towards breaking the power 
of satan and enlarging the kingdom of Christ, and as having a great 
opportunity put into your hands of helping on this work by the in* 
fluence which Ood has given you over such a number of heathen idol- 
aters, who still continue under the dominion of satan. In the next 
place, let me beseech you to consider them, not barely as slaves and 
upon the same level with laboring beasts, but as men slaves and women 
slaves, who have the same frame and faculties with yourselves, and 
have soula capable of being made eternally happy, and reason and 
understanding to receive instruction in order to it. If they came from 
abroad, let it not be said that they are as far from the knowledge of 
Christ in a Christian country as when they dwelt among pagan idola- 
ters. If they have been bom among you, and have never breathed any 
air but that of aVChristian country, let them not be as much strangers 
to Christ as if they had been transplanted, as soon as bom, into a oountiy 
of pagan idolaters. 

Hoping that these and the like considerations will move yon to lay 
this matter seriously to heart, and excite you to use the best means in 
your power towards so good and pious a work, I cannot omit to suggest 
to you one of the best motives that can bo used for disposing the hea- 
thens to embrace Christianity, and that is the good lives of Christiana. 
Let ihem see in you and your families examples of sobriety, temperanoev 
and chastity, and of all the other virtues and graces of the Christian 
life. Let them observe how strictly you oblige yourselves and all that 
belong to you, to abstain from cursing and swearing, and to keep the 
Lord's day holy, and to attend the public worship of Ood, and the 
ordinances which Christ hath appointed in his Gospel. Make them 
sensible by the general tenor of your behavior and conversation that 
your inward temper and disposition is such as the Gospel requires, that 
IS to say, mild, gentle, and merciful ; r.nd that as often as you exercise 
rigor and severity it is wholly owing to their idleness or obstinacy. By 
these means, you will open their hearts to instraction, and prepare them 
to receive the truths of the Gospel, to which if you add a pious endeavor 
and concern to see them duly instructed, you may become the instra- 
ment of saving many souls, and will not only secure a blessing from 
God upon all your undertakings in this world, but entitle yourselves to 
that distinguishing reward in the next, which will be ^ven to all those 
who have been zealous in their endeavors to promote the salvation of 
men, and enlarge the kingdom of Christ. And that you may be found 
in that number at the great day of accounts, is the sincere desire and 
eamest prayer of 

Your fiuthful fiiend. 

May 19,1727. EomOnd, Lokdok. 



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LETTER IL 

The Bishop of LondwCs Letter to the Missionaries in the English plan- 
tations^ exhorting them to give their assistance towards the instruction 
of the negroes of their several parishes, in the Christian Faith. 

Good Brother : — 

Having understood by many letters from the plantations, and by the 
accounts of persons who have come from thence, that very little pro- 
gress hath hitherto been made in the conversion of the negroes to the 
Christian faith, I have thought it proper for me to lay before the mas- 
ters and mistresses the obligations they are under to promote and 
encourage that pious and necessary work. This I have done in a letter 
directed to them, of which you will receive several copies, in order to 
be distributed to those who have negroes in your own parish ; and I 
must entreat you when you put the letter into their hands to enforce 
the design of it by any further arguments that you shall think proper 
to be used, and also to assure them of your own assistance in carrymg 
on the work. 

I am aware that in the plantations, where the parishes are of so large 
extent, the care and labor of the parochial ministers must be great ; but 
yet I persuade myself, that many vacant hours may be spared from the 
other pastoral duties, to be bestowed on this ; and I cannot doubt of 
the readiness of every missionary in his own parish, to promote and 
further a work so charitable to the souls of men, and so agreeable to 
the great end and design of his mission. 

, As to those ministers who have negroes of their own ; I cannot but 
esteem it their indispensable duty to use their best endeavors to in- 
struct them in the Christian religion, in order to their being baptized ; 
both because such negroes are their proper and immediate care, and 
because it is in vain to hope that other masters and mistresses will exert 
themselves in this work, if they see it wholly neglected, or but coldly 
pursued, in the families of the clergy. So that any degree of neglect 
on your part, in the instruction of your own negroes, would not only 
be the withholding from them the inestimable benefits of Christianity, 
but would evidently tend to the obstructing and defeating the whole 
design in every other family. 

I would also hope, that the schoolmasters in the several parishes, 
part of whose business it is to instruct youth in the principles of 
Christianity, might contribute somewhat towards the carrying on this 
work ; by being ready to bestow upon it some of their leisure time, 
and especially on the Lord's day, when both they and the negroes are 
most at liberty, and the clergy are taken up with the public duties of 
their function. And thou^ the assistance they give to this pious 
design, should not meet with any reward from men, yet their comfort 
may be, that it is the work of God, and will assuredly be rewarded by 
Him ; and the less they are obliged to this on account of any reward 
they receive from men, the greater will their reward be from the hands 



TAe Propagation Society, ^c. 



105 



of God. I must therefore entreat you to recommend it to them in my 
name, and to dispose them by all proper arguments and persuasions to 
turn their thoughts seriously to it, and to be always ready to offer and 
lend their assistance at their leisure hours. 

And so, not doubting of your ready and zealous concumence in pro- 
moting this important work, and earnestly begging a blessing from 
Odd upon this and all your other pastoral labors, I remain 

Your affectionate friend and brother, 

May 10th, 1727. Edmund, London. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Iroquois border on New York and New England. The Genius 
of the Northern Indians, and the condition of their Countries. The 
Earl of JBellamont, Governor of New York, represents the want of 
Missionaries for instructing the Iroquois. An Order of the Queen 
and Council for their Instruction. The Society send the Rev. Mr. 
Thoroughgood Moor, Missionary to them. His Labors ; they prove 
fruitless ; he embarks for England ; he and all the Ship's Crew are 
lost at Sea. Four Sachems or Indian Kings arrive in England ; 
they desire a Missionary to instruct them and their People; they 
return home. Mr. Andrews is sent Missionary to the Mohocks. A 
Fort is built among them. They refuse to let their Children learn 
English. Some Chapters of the Bible and part of our Common- 
Prayer, translated into the Indian-Iroquois Language ; some few 
Indians are taught. The Mohocks will not send their Children to 
School ; refuse to come to be instructed. Mr. Andrews represents 
all his Labors prove useless. Leaves this Mission. 

The Indians bordering on the Colony of New York, are the Iroquois, 
or five nations, once a very numerous people ; they deserved the first 
regard of the English upon two accounts ; they drove a considerable 
trade with the English in beaver at Albany, and were the frontier 
nations against the French settlement at Quebeck, and the Canada 
Indians their allies ; who in conjunction have several times ravaged the 
frontiers of New England and New York. It was necessary, upon a 
civil as well as religious account, that the society should employ their 
first labors in endeavoring their conversion, and accordingly they did 
send the first missionaries among these people. Before I give an 
account of the society's endeavors, it is necessary to make some remarks 
on the genius of the Northern Americans, and on the condition of the 
countries they inhabited. 

2. It is first to be observed, that the genius and temper of the North- 
ern Americans is very different from those of the Southern Continent. 
The once mighty empires of Mexico and Peru were filled with a people 
civilized, which lived a settled life, built stately cities and towns, culti- 

14 



M 



106 



Humphrey's History of 



vated the ffround, had a Pagan Reli^on, used the arts of government, 
and discii^ine of war, and did certainly appear not only capable, but 
willing to receive all the more curious arts the Europeans could teach 
ihem. But, on the contrary, the Northern Americans bordering on the 
British Colonies were utterly barbarian, neither built cities, nor culti- 
vated the ground, knew nothing of morality or the common decendes 
of human Hfe, were divided into numerous small tribes, wandered naked 
in vast deserts and woods, leading a bestial life, in perpetual wars with 
each other, carried on with extreme cruelty, sustaining themselves with 
hunting, fishing, and the spontaneous products of the earth. In short, 
as different from the Mexicans or Peruvians, as the hords of Siberia and 
Tartary are from the elegance and civility of the Southern nations of 
Europe. 

8. Besides, the country was as rude as the inhabitants. When the 
English, perhaps prompted by the vast treasures the Spaniards had got 
m Mexico and Peru, made meir settlements in North America, tbey 
were disappointed in their hopes. They found no such countries as the 
Spaniards had, no mines of gold or silver, no rich cities like Mexico ; 
but a naked and rude country and people. The English took nothing 
from the natives but an uncultivated soil : nay, that too they purchased, 
though for a trifle, yet that was a price, since the natives would not 
turn it to its proper use, and till it All the riches drawn from these 
lands now by the English, is owing chiefly to their own honest labor, 
scarce anything to wat of the natives ; whereas the wealth of the 
Spaniards, is to this day dug out of the mines, at the expense of the 
sweat and blood of the miserable natives and negroes. It is very prob- 
able, had the Providence of God directed Columbus, and the Spanish 
fleet, to the Northern America, the poverty of the inhabitants would 
have secured the country. The Spaniards would not have thought it 
worth while to make any settlements, where nothing was to be got 
without their own labor ; but the immense treasures of the southern 
world did so amaze them, that they resolved to get them, (and they 
did get them,) at the price of any wickedness. 

4. Another matter to be here remarked is, that many of these coun- 
tries, on which the English settled, were not only uncultivated, but 
almost desolate, with very few inhabitants, when the English took pos- 
session. Especially New England (now called) was almost an aban- 
doned country. The New England historian* writes thus : " The sum- 
mer after the Blazing Star (whose motion in the Heavens was from 
east to west, pointing out to the sons of men, the progress of the glori- 
ous Oospel of Christ) even about the year 1618, a little before the 
removal of the Church of Christ to New England, as the ancient Indi- 
ans report, there befell a great mortality among them, the greatest that 
ever the memory of father to son took notice of; chiefly desolating 
those places where the English afterward planted the county of Pocka- 
nochy Agissawang, it was almost wholly deserted, insomuch that the 

*Vid. History of New England, printed 1684, p. Id. 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



107 



neighbor Indians did abandon those places for fear of death, fleeing more 
west and by south, observing that the east and by northern parts were 
most smit with the contagion. The Aborginny men, consisting of Mat- 
tachusetts, Whippanaps, and Tarratines, were greatly weakened, and 
more especially the three Kingdoms or Saggamore ships of the Matta- 
chusetts, who were before thii mortality most populous, having under 
them seven Dukedoms, or petty Saggamores. The Nianticks and Nar> 
ragansetts, who before this time were but of little note, yet were they 
now much increased by such as fled thither for fear of death. The 
Pecods (who retained the name of a warlike people, till afterwards 
conquered by the English) were also smitten at this time. Their dis- 
ease being a sore consumption, sweeping away whole families, chiefly 
young men and children, the very seeds of increase. Their powwowes, 
which are their doctors, working partly by charm, partly by medicine, 
were much amazed to see their wigwams (houses) lie full of dead 
corpses, and now that neither Squantam nor Abomocho could help, 
which are their good and bad God. By this means, Christ not only 
made room for his people to plant, but also tamed the cruel hearts of 
these barbarous Indians, insomuch that half an handful of his people, 
landing not long after in Plymouth plantation, found little resistance." 

The Indians of South and North Carolina were swept away by dis- 
eases and intestine wars. Mr. Archdale, a person of honor, who had 
been Governor of Carolina, and was a proprietary, writes thus of them : 
"Providence was Visible in thinning the Indians, to make room for the 
English. There were two potent Nations, the Westoes and the Savan- 
nas, who broke out into an unusual civil war, before the English arrived; 
and from many thousands, reduced themselves to a small number. The 
most cruel of them, the Westoes, were driven out of the Province; and 
the Savannas continued good friends and useful neighbors to the 
English. It pleased God also to send unusual sickness among them, as 
the small pox, &c. The Pemlico Indians in North Carolina were lately 
swept away by a pestilence ; and the Coramine by a war." 

Pennsylvania was settled first by the Swedes and Dutch, we know 
not in what condition they found it, but when Mr. Pen came with the 
English thither, he purchased of the natives ground, and they never 
had any wars with them. These Indians also fell into unusual distem- 
pers and died ; perhaps it may be considered as a Providential visita- 
tion, at least a judicious historian tells us, an Indian war captain, in 
his sickness, made this serious expostulation with himself:* "What is 
the matter with us Indians, that we are thus sick in our own air, and 
these strangers well ? 'Tis as if they were sent hither to inherit our 
lands in our steads; but the reason is plain, they love the great God, 
and we do not." A reflection very surprising in a barbarian ; but Mr. 
Pen heard it, and attested it to be matter of fact to the historian. 

6. This was the condition of the people and country, when the 
English made their first settlements in America. The people were poor 

^Vid. Eoglish Empire in America, p. 162. 



108 



Humphrey's History of 



snd wild, the countries a mere wilderness, and almost desolate. The 
society did, soon after their establishment, endeavor the conversion of 
the Indians bordering on New York. The French, and the adjoining 
Canada Indians, had several times, by various artifices, seduced them to 
ravage the frontier settlements of New England and New York. The 
Earl of Bellamont, in the year 1700, Governor of New York, made a 
representation to the Lords of trade and plantations here, ^ That there 
was a great want of some ministers of the Church of England to in- 
struct the five nations of Indians, on the frontiers of New York, and 
prevent their being practiced upon by French priests and Jesuits, who 
were conversant among them, and very industrious in persuading them, 
by pretences of religion, to espouse the French interest" 

Whereupon the Lords Commissioners represented it as their humble 
opinion, *'That if a fund could be found for the maintenance of such 
ministers, they might be of very great use and service, as well for the 
propagation of the reformed religion, as for improving the interest of 
England." This representation was laid before the Queen in Council; 
upon which the following order was made : 

At the Court of St. James's, the third day of April, lYOO. Present, 
the Queen's most Excellent Majesty in Council. 

" Upon reading thid day at the Board, a representation from the 
Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, dated the second of 
this month, relating to Her Majesty's Province of New York in Amer- 
ica, setting forth among other things, that as to the five nations border- 
ing upon New York, lest the intrigues of the French of Canada, and 
the influence of their priests, who frequently converse, and sometimes 
inhabit with those Indians, should debauch them from Her Majesty's 
allegiance, their Lordships are humbly of opinion, that besides the usual 
method of engaging the said Indians by presents ; another means to 
prevent the influence of the French missionaries among them, (and 
thereby more effectually to secure their fidelity,) would be, that two 
Protestant ministers be appointed, with a competent all«wance, to dwell 
among them, in order to instruct them in the true religion, and confirm 
them m their duty to Her Majesty. It is ordered by Her Majesty in 
Council, that it be, and it is hereby referred to his Grace the Lord Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, to take such care therein as may most effectually 
answer this service." 

His Grace the Archbishop, the President of this Society, communi- 
cated this most gracious resolution to the Board. The Society agreed 
presently to do their utmost A mission among the Indians they knew 
would be attended with many difficulties, and therefore it was not an 
easy matter to procure a proper person who would undertake it The 
inhabitants of Albany, one hundred miles from New York, and a fron- 
tier to the Indians, were chiefly Dutch, and had the chief dealings with 
the Indians ; Mr. Dellius, a minister, had resided there ; and was repre- 
sented to the Society as a very proper person to attempt the conver- 
sion of the Indians. The Society were also informed, that during his 
residence at Albany, he had been useful in instructing and converting 



The Propagation Society, ^. 



100 



some of the Indians who used to resort to that place, had ^ 
several, and had gained a tolerable knowledge of their language. The 
Society invited him to undertake this mission ; he was then in Holland, 
having returned to Europe u^n his private affairs, but he declined it; 
Mr. Freeman, a Calvinist minister at Schenectady, a little village situate 
on a river in a very pleasant vale, distant twenty miles from Albany, 
and twen^-four from the first castle of the Mohocks, a nation' of the 
Iroquois Indians, was next pitched upon for this work, Wt he also 
declined it. He had token great pains to instruct some of the Indians 
who came to Schenectady, had gained a good knowledge of their 
language, and with the help of some interpreters, had translated sever- 
al Psalms, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, some chapters of the 
Bible, into the Indian language. At last, the Rev. Mr. Thoroughgood 
Moor undertook this mission, with great zeal and resolution. He was 
directed by the Society to reside in some of the nearest settlements of 
the Indians, to learn their language, and by all ways of condescension 
to endeavor to instruct them in the Christian Religion. He arrived at 
New York in 1704, and was received by the Lord Combury, the Oov- 
emor, with all possible countenance and favor. 

6. Mr. Moor soon entered upon the business of his mission, and 
went up to Albany ; some Indians being then in town, and hearing of 
his design, seemed much pleased with it, came to see him, and spoke 
to this effect : " We are come to express our joy at your safe arrival, 
and that you have escaped the dangers of a dreadful sea, which you 
Iiave crossed, I hear, to instruct us in religion. It only grieves us, that 
you are come in time of war, when it is uncertain whether you live or 
die with us." And after this, a sachem, or petty king, came to him, 
with some other Indians, and addressed him thus: "We are come to 
express our great satisfaction, that God hath been so propitious to us as 
to send you to open our eyes, which have been hitherto shut." These 
congratulatory expressions were very pleasing to him ; he told them in 
return, " that notning should be wanting on his part, and that he would 
devote himself to their good, and that he only stoid at Albany to learn 
their language, in order to teach them. He did not then make any 
public proposition to them, but intended to take the first opportunity 
of doing it at their own castle. He was kept longer than he expected, 
from going thither, by a great fall of snow. However, he sent a mes- 
sage to them by three of their own countrymen, with a handsome 
present to them, (a belt of Indian money,) promising to come himself 
very soon to see them ; which promise he performed with great diffi- 
culty. Being come to the Mohocks' castle, they received him cour- 
teously ; one of the Sachems told him, that they had received his mes- 
sage, but it was lately ; and not having consulted with the other castle, 
(which was about twelve miles distant,) they could give no answer to 
it now, but they would consult with them on the first opportunity, and 
then send their answer. Mr. Moor thought himself somewhat disap- 
pointed, and was afraid their delay in receiving him to reside with them, 
was an artificial excuse ; however, he told them with all civility, that 



tio 



Humphrey's History of 



he would wait for their answer, and ao returned to Albany, where, io 
a little time, one of those Mohocks came with this answer : '* The visit 
you made us, and the design of it, was very welcome, for which we 
return you our thanks. We have always lived in great friendship with 
our brethren of this province ; but we have been all along in such dark- 
ness, and our eyes so covered, that we have not known what will be- 
come of our souls after death. We cannot but rejoice that God 

should be so good to us, as to make us this offer ; but it grieves us, 
that the rest of our brethren, the other four nations, are like to have 
no such blessing; therefore it is necessary wo first acquaint them, (for 
we are all but one house,) and then we will give you a positive answer." 

Mr. Moor found himself again disappointed, and thought he had new 
matter for suspicion, that tibey did not intend to receive him among 
them. However, he made this return to tbe Sachem who brought him 
the message: **I have considered your answer, and am sorry it is not 
more full and satisfactory. As to what you say about the other nations, 
I believe they will rather rejoic. at your happiness, than have any sus- 
picions about it Especially, when they are told, that there is another 
minister daily expect^ for the Oncydes, and one for every other nation, 
as soon as proper and willing persons can be found ; but I will stay for 
your answer with the greatest patience.*' He waited a long time at 
Albany, but could obtain no answer at all ; he then returned to New 
York, and sent the Society his reasons for desisting from this work at 
present ''That he had been at Albany near a twelvemonth, and had 
used all the means he could think of, to get the good will of the Indians ; 
that their unreasonable delays and frivolous excuses for not giving him 
a final answer, with some other circumstances, were a sufficient indica- 
tion of their resolution never to accept him. And therefore, expecting 
either no answer at all, or at last a positive denial, he had left them, 
and was come to New York." Some time after, Mr. Thoroughgood 
Moor embarked for England ; but it was thought the ship foundered 
at sea ; for neitlier he, or any of the crew, or any wreck of the ship, 
were ever heard of after. 

V. Thus was this attempt frustrated, but the Society did receive ac- 
counts, that this ill success was owing, not only to the aversion of the 
Indians to Christianity, but was very much occasioned by the artifices 
of the French Jesuits, who industriously obstruct the labors of the Eng- 
lish missionaries among them, and leave no means untried, to seduce 
them from their fidelity to the crown of England, and keep them in a 
continual war with the English. And indeed all the evils that the Eng- 
lish Colonies have undergone, during the last war, have been occasioned 
by the Indians, that is, those Indians which the Jesuits have by their 
artifices corrupted. For among the five Nations there is a great number 
of French Jesuits, who are incorporated by adoption into their tribes, 
and as such they ostentatiously assume Iroquois names ; and the poor 
silly Indians, considering them as if persons of their own blood, do 
entirely confide in them, and admit them into their councils, from 
whence one may easily imagine what disorders the Jesuits make in 



7%e Propagation Society, 4«. 



Ill 



Im in a 

|e Eng- 

uoned 

their 

[umber 

tribes, 

ie poor 

^od, do 

from 

kakein 



their affairs. Besides, the Indians bordering on New England, are the 
most cruel and barbarous of all the savage nations, and have destroyed 
all their innocent neighbors. They are always unfixed, either rambling 
for several months together, or hunting, or upon warlike expeditions ; 
and at their return to the villages, have generally unleamM all their 
former instructions; and it is impossible for any minister to accompany 
them in their ramble of three or four hundred leagues at a time. 

8. After this good endeavor was defeated, the Indians remained 
without instruction, except that some few were taught by the Dutch 
minister at Albany. But the year 1709, produced an event which the 
Society hoped might have had veiy happy consequences, and fixed 
Christianity among the Iroquois. Four Sachems, or chief persons of 
four nations of the Iroquois, came in the nature of ambassadors to Eng- 
land, confirming the peace made with the Governor of New York, and 
requesting Her Majesty would be pleased to direct that their subjects 
might be instructed in Christianity, and ministers might be sent to re- 
side among them. The Archbishop of Canterbury received the foUow- 
inff letter from the Earl of Sunderland, then one of Her Majesty's 
principal Secretaries of State. 

Whitehall, April 20, 1710. 
Mr Lord, 

The enclosed being a copy of what has been given to the Queen 
by the embassadors lately arrived from the five Indian nations, I am 
ordered by Her Majesty to transmit it to your Grace, and to signify to 
you her pleasure, that you lay it before the Society for Propagating 
Religion, that they may consider what may be the more proper ways 
of cultivating that good disposition these Indians seem to De in for 
receiving the Christian faith, and for sending thither fit persons for that 
purpose, and to report their opinion without loss of time, that the same 
may be laid before Her Majesty. 

I am, &c. 

SUNDBBLAND, &0. 

The Archbishop was then much indisposed, and confined to his 
house with the gout, and therefore signified to the Secretary of the 
Society, to call a committee to meet at Lambeth. A committee met, 
and it was agreed there, and afterward by the Society at a general 
meeting, that two missionaries should be sent to the Mohock and On- 
cydes Indians, with a salary of £150 sterling each, together with an 
interpreter and schoolmaster, to teach the young Indians; and this 
opinion was humbly laid before the Queen. Her Majesty was farther 
pleased to direct that a fort should be built among the Mohocks, at 
the government's expense, with a chapel and a mansion house for the 
minister, for his greater convenience and security, and that the religious 
offices might be performed with due decency. 

A fort was soon after built, one hundred and fifty feet square, and 
garrisoned with twenty soldiers and an officer, and a nouse and Chape) 



113 



Humphrey's History of 



completed. The Rev. Mr. Andrews was appointed missionary, and Mr. 
Clausen, who had been several years employed as interpreter by the 
Government of New York, in transactions with the Indians, was receiv- 
ed as interpreter to Mr. Andrews, and Mr. Oliver was mat schoolmas- 
ter. Mr. Andrews was particularly directed by the Society to use all 
possible means to persuade the Indians to let their children learn 
English, and the schoolmaster was to make it his whole business to teach 
them. The Society were now in good hopes this attempt would prove 
successful, since her Majesty was so graciously pleased to provide for 
the security of the missionary by building a fort just by the Mohocks' 
castle, to which the men and children might easily resort to be instruct- 
ed. And the Sachems, the chief persons of these people, had been in 
England, received many marks of royal favor, had been eye-witnesses 
of the greatness of the Nation, had been nobly entertained here, and 
carried home to their own countries safely and honorably, and had 
themselves also desired their people might be instructed in the Christ- 
ian faith. 

9. Mr. Andrews arrived at Albany in November, 1*712. The 
Sachems, who had been carried home before he went from England, 
were convened, by order of the Governor of New York, to meet Mr. 
Andrews and the Commissioners for Indian Affairs, at Albany ; in order 
to give a public authority and sanction to Mr. Andrews' Mission, and 
that the Sachems might receive him, their minister, with greater solem- 
nity. The Sachems came to Albany, met the Commissioners for Indi- 
an Affairs, and Mr. Andrews ; the Commissioners made a long speech 
to the Sachems, reminding them how gracious her Majesty was in 
building a fort, and sending a minister to them ; put them in mind how 
earnestly they had requested it, and set forth what advantages they and 
their children would reap, by being taught our religion and learning. 
A letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury was delivered to them, and 
afterwards read to them in Indian, by Mr. Clausen, the Interpreter of 
the Province. Some of the Sachems made speeches, and returned 
thanks to the Queen, expressed a great satisfaction in having a min- 
ister sent them, and received Mr. Andrews as such, and promised him 
all civil and kind usage ; the whole affair was transacted with much 
ceremony. The Sachems returned home. Mr. Andrews staid some 
time at Albany to refresh himself; soon after he went up to the fort, 
two hundred miles from New York, accompanied by Robert Levinston, 
Esq., the Mayor of Albany, Captain Matthews, Mr. Strooman of Sche- 
nectady, the Rev. Mr. Barclay, and several other gentlemen ; he was 
presently visited by a great many Indians, men, women and children, 
who saluted him with abundance of joy, and bade him welcome to their 
county. 

The Castle, or chief town of these Mohocks, is neighboring to the 
Queen's fort, consisting of about fifty wigwams or houses. These wig- 
wams are huts made of mats and bark of trees put together, with 
poles about three or four yards high. The Mohocks' clothing is a short 
coat like a mantle, made of a blwket or bear's skin, their bed is a mat 



The Propagation Sbciely, 4^. 



Ill 



to the 

ese wig- 

Br, with 

a short 

) a mat 



or skin laid on the ground. They paint and grease themMlTet verj 
much with bear's fat clarified ; they cut the hair off from one side of 
their heads, and tie up some of that on the other side, in knots, on the 
crown, with feathers. The men are very slothful, the women very labo- 
rious, mere servants to their husbands ; they carry all the bi^^deus, fetcH 
the venison home their husbands kill, (the men are too lazy to bring 
iti) get in the wood to bum and dress it, carrv their children on their 
backs in their rambles, of many hundreds of miles, hoe the ffround, and 
plant all the indian corn that is raised. The language of this people 
u very difficult, their ideas are very few, and their words therefore not 
many, but as long as sentences, expressing by a long rumbling sound, 
what we do in a short word. There is here no manner of conveniency 
of life for a missionary. For four or five months in the year, there is 
scarce any stirring abroad, by reason of the extreme coldness of the 
weather, and the deep snows that fall ; and in summer time, the flies and 
mosquitoes are almost intolerable, and the rattlesnakes very damgerous. 
The nearest place of getting any provisions, is at Schenectady, twenty^- 
four miles distant, or from Albany, forty-four miles off. The road to 
these places is fur the most part only a small, rough Indian path, 
through vast woods, where riding is very dangerous, by reason lof the 
road being in many places stopped with fallen trees, roots, stones and 
holes, besides many high and steep hills, and deep swamps or bogs in 
the way. There was nothins desirable to be seen, the face of the earth 
rude and uncultivated, like the wild inhabitants, no pleasure to be got 
but that of doing good to the miserable natives. 

These were the circumstances of the place and people whither Mr. 
Andrews was appointed ; and notwithstanding all these inconveniencies, 
he resided there, and invited the Indians to come to him ; many came, 
he used to discourse very much with them, instructing them in the chief 
Articles of Faith, and giving them short general accounts of our re- 
ligion. This was done by the help of Mr. Clausen, who always attended 
and interpreted to the Indians. Mr. Clausen had been formerly taken 

Imsoner by the Indians, lived long among them, and understood their 
anguage sufficiently. Mr. Andrews used to make short accounts of the 
Christian doctrines, and some historical parts of the Bible, particularly 
the creation of the world, and miracles of our Lord. The interpreter 
used to read them to the Indians ; and Divine Service used to be per- 
formed in English to the soldiers in the garrison. The schoolmaster, 
Mr. Oliver, opened his school. The Indians at first sent many of their 
children ; he began to teach them English ; the parents obstinately refus- 
ed to have them taught English. Ail possible endeavors were used to 
persuade them ; they still persisted. Mr. Andrews sent this account to 
the Society, and rather than quite break with the Indians, the school- 
master and interpreter began to teach the children a little in Indian. 
The Society were forced to comp'y with the Indians' obstinacy. They 
procured an impression of hornbooks and prinimers in Indian for the 
children, sent them great numbers, as also leiithern inkhorns, penknives, 
a quantity of paper of several sorts, and several other little necessaries. 

16 



114 



Humphrey'9 HiiUnry o/V'V 



The ohildran were now ttoght in Indian, and were treated with great 
UndneM, no correction dared to be uaed, for the parents were so fond 
of th«r children, and valued learning so little, they thought it not worth 
gaining, at ^e least displeasing of their children. To engage them fiir- 
ther to learn, Mr. Andrews tued to dve the children who came to 
■chool, rictnals, and some small utensus for their parents. The children 
used often to come for the sake of getting victuals ; for the Indians are 
fi«quently drove to great extremities, on account of their making little 
tM* no provision beforehand. The children had a good natural capacity, 
and an aptness for learning. Many of them begun to read, ana some 
to write. This method of giving tnem victuals engaged the parents to 
lend them, for some time, to school. 

In the mean time Mr. Andrews proceeded to instruct the grown In* 
dians by help of the interpreter, in some of the chief Articles of 
Faith and rules of life. Divine Service was constantly performed on 
fiundays and holidays in English, to the soldiers ; and such Indians as 
understood any English, frequently attended in the chapel. The chapel 
was very decently adorned. Queen Anne bad given a handsome furni- 
ture for the communion table. The imperial arras of England, painted 
on canvas, were fixed up in the chapel. Archbishop Tenison gave 
twelve large Bibles very nnely bound for the use of the chapels ; with 
painted tables, containing the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Command- 
taents. Mr. Andrews was very civil to all the Indians who came to 
hear him, used fi^quently to entertain them at bis house, and gave 
them provisions home when they wanted very much, and that they 
often did. The Society, since they could by no means prevail on the 
Indians to learn English, neither young nor old, labored to get some 
good translations made, of parts of the Scripture at least, into the In- 
dian language ; though exceeding improper to convey a due idea of 
the Christian Doctrines ; as being willing by all methods of compliance, 
to gain something upon them. The Society were very mnch assisted in 
this, by Mr. Freeman, a very worthy Calvinist minister. He had been five 
years minister at Schenectady, to a Dutch congregation, and bad been 
employed by the Earl of Bellamontin the year 1700, to convert the 
Indians. He had a good knowledge of the dialect of the Mohocks, 
which is understood by all the Iroquois, who reach near four hundred 
miles beyond Albany. The Society applied to him for any proper pa- 
pers wrote in that language, which he might have. He acquainted the 
Society, that he had translated into Indian the morning and evening 
prayer of our Liturgy, the whole Oospel of St Matthew, the three first 
chapters of Genesis, several cbapterH of Exodus, several Psalms, many 
portions of the Scripture relating the birth, passion, resurrection, and 
ascension of our Lord ; and several chapters of the 1st Epistle to the 
Corinthians, particularly the 15th chapter, proving the resurrection of 
the dead. He very frankly gave the Society a copy of these translations, 
which were sent to Mr. Andrews for his help, and they were a great 
help to him. He used frequently to read some of these to the Indians, 
and they could comprehend well enough by his reading. But the Soci- 



T%» Propagation Soeitip, ^. 



Iff 



many 
I, and 
to the 
ition of 
ations, 
great 
ndians, 
e Soci- 



ety were deamnM some part of the Soriptnre might b« printed in In- 
dian, and the oopiet given to the Indiana, and they taught at leati to 
read that Accordingly the Morning and Bveninff I^yer, the Litanv, 
the Ohurch catechism, iamUy prayers, and aevenu chaptert of the Oia 
and New Testament, were printed at New York ; the oopiepi were sent 
to Mr. Andrews, and he gave them to such of the Indians as knew any- 
thing of letters. He had hopes noir of some success in his mission ; 
several of the women, and some men, began to lead more orderiy lives ; 
they were instructed and retained well in their memory, what the chief 
Articles of our Faith are, and rules of life ; a good number was bap- 
tized, and particular accounts were sent regularly to the Society. Mr. 
Andrews was willing to try what good he could do among anouer na- 
tion of the Indians ; he traveled to the castle of the Onydans, one hun- 
dred miles distant from the Mohocks ; the country all the way was a 
vast wilderness of wood and the road through it a narrow Indian path. 
He was forced to carry all necessaries with him, and at nignt to 
lie upon a bear's skin. When he arrived at the castle, he was vinted 
by more than one hundred people, who seemed all glad to see him ; he 
read several papers to them, staid some time with them, and after in- 
struction, baptized several, whose names have been transmitted t«> the 
Society. Mr. Andrews afterwards returned to the Mohocks, his place 
of residence. 

In a short time, the Indians ffrew weary of instruction ; the men 
grown, would go out in bodies a hunting for several months, and forget 
all they had been taught ; and the young boys when they grew up, 
were taken out by their fathers to hunt, and so lost all they Bad got. 
This roving life utterly destroyed all the missionary and schoolmaster's 
labors. But besides this difficulty, and the natural averseness of the 
Indians to learning, two misfortunes happened, which created a jealousy, 
and afterwards a hatred in the Indians against all the English, as well 
as against their religion. Some Jesuits, emissaries from Quebeck among 
the Canada Indians adjoining to the Iroquois, had infused into the 
minds of those people, Uiat the English did not intend by building a 
fort among the Iroauois, to teach them their religion, but to cut them 
all off, at a proper juncture ; and that a box had been found acciden- 
tally, left by the English, when they attempted Quebeck, containing pa- 
pers which discovered this intention of the English. The Canada In- 
dians believed this idle story, and spread it among all the Iroquois. 
This stirred up some jealousy ; but a farther misfortune did quite set 
the Indians against the English. Some of the Tuscarora Indians, who 
had fled from North Carolina after the war there with the Enfflish, 
came and settled in the country of the Ononta^, one of the Iroquois na- 
tions, bordering on the Mohocks. These people being enraged at the 
English, stirred up the Onontages against them, telling them they had 
been most barbarously used, and drove out of their country, and that 
the English watched only for an opportunity to extirpate them too. 
The other Indians were too easily persuaded to believe everything the 
Tuscarora Indians told them ; so tnat when any of these people came 



lie 



Humphrey'9 HUttry of 



hj IheMohodn' cMtle, Md tb« Qti««n*s Fort in thdrwaj to AHmmij, to 
trade and buy themMlves neceMAries, thej used only to mock at Mr. 
Andrews when he would oAfr to talk to them about religion ; and when 
he proffered to so to their abode, they abeolutely ibrUide him. In a 
little time the old Mohocks 1^ off coming to the chapel to Mr. An- 
drews, and the children came no more to school. Mr. Andrews wroUl 
the Society word of the ill success of his mission, *' though he had spared 
no pains, that the hopeful beginnings proved of no effect at last, and 
that he beaan to despair of converting the Indians." 

The Society found now, from several accounts, that the mission 
among the Indians proved fruitless ; that it was not possible to teach 
them the Christian religion, before they were in some degree dviliied ; 
and they found the following diflSculiieH did wholly hinder that 

No means could be found to engage the Indians to lead a settled 
life, to apply themselves to cultivate the ground, to build towns, and to 
raise cattle. They would still rove throuffh their vast woods many 
hundreds of miles, depend for their subsKtence iipon the game they 
oould kill ; they would eat all sorts of carrion, and in some long ram- 
bles, when by various accidents they oould get no game, would kill and 
eat one another, even their wives, and that without any concern or re- 
morse. Generally half of a hord or nation went out a hunting or 
a warring upon a neighboring nation together, and in these expedi- 
tions forgot all the little they had learned, and at their leturn were as 
mere savages as ever. They could not be dissuaded from takin|^ 
wives, and leaving them at their pleasure ; this not only hindered relb 
gion from being Hzed among them, but was the cause that a great 
many aged men and women perished miserably, as having no one to 
take any care of them. They would in their wan use the greatest 
barbarities, and destroy all the prisoners they could take by such ex- 
treme tortures ; it would move too much horror in the reader to have 
them related. 

It is true, they were very fond of their children, but they perverted 
even so good a principle ; they would not oblige them to learn any 
manual art, or our language, but let them live a lazy, bestial life. Nay, 
some of the young children, who have by chance fallen into the English 
hands, and lived m families, been taught our language, learnt a decent 
behavior, and known someUiing of tillage, or a handycraft, when they 
have grown up, have run wild again, have thrown off their clothes, 
and chose rather to ramble naked almost in the woods with their own 
people, than to live a sober and settled life. 

But the greatest obstruction to their being civilized, was their greedi- 
ness of strongjiquors, especially rum, and the fatal effect drunkenness 
hath upon them. When they drink they will never leave off till they 
have gone to the greatest excess, and in this condition, they are most 
wretched objects : they grow quite mad, burn their own little huts, 
murder their wives or children, or one another: so that their wives are 
forced to hide their guns or hatchets, and themselves too, for fear of 
mischief And if the men through this excess fall into any sickness, 



Th$ Propagation Society, 4«- 



117 



tbtjF p«rW> miserably, •• haWng no m«thodi of helping themselree bj 
physio or otherwise. 

It iit indeed maU«r of great wonder, that theae wretched people, who 
have lived joining to the English settlementa so man^ yeara, and can* 
not but observe that the English, by agriculture, raiite proTiHions out 
of a small spot of gt^und, to support in plenty great numbers gf people ; 
whereas they by their hunting cannot get a wretched subsistence out «^all 
their wilderness of several hundred leagues in extent ; should still re> 
Aise to till their ground, or learn any manual art ; should still live a 
bestial life, insensible of shame or glory. It is true, the English have 
taken from them exceeding large countries, yet this, far from being a 
prejudice, would be a vast advantage to them, if they would but leara 
the English language, arts, and infhistry. They have still an immensa 
extent of land, pait of which, if duly cultivated, is able to maintain 
many millions of people more thnn they are. It might have been 
imaffined the sachems, those petty kings, who were m Enffland in 
the Tate Queen's time, should have been so strongly affected with Mting 
the grandeur, pleasure, and plenty of this nation, that when they cam* 
to their own countries, they would have tried to reduce their people to 
a polite life ; would have employed their whole power to expel that 
rude barbarism, and introduce arts, manners, and relioion. But the 
contrary happened, they sunk themselves into their old brutal life, and 
though they had seen this great city, when they came to their own 
woods, they were all savages again. 

Mr. Andrews wrote several accounts more in 1718, that all hia labors 
proved ineffectual, the Indians would not send their children to school, 
and nobody came to the chapel ; that four other nations of the Iroquois, 
as they came by the Mohocks* castle, insulted and threatened him, 
that the interpreter and schoolmaster perceived all their labor was lost, 
and that they were frequently in danger of their lives if they went out 
of the fort The Society received these accounts with much dissatis- 
faction, as being extremely contrary to what their good desires had 
made them hope. However, they were so unwilling to abandon this 
wretched people to themselves, that they would not dismiss Mr. 
Andrews from his miasion, upon his own representation of liis ill suo* 
They wrote to the Governor of New York, Robert Hunter, Esq.; 



cess. 



acquainted him with the accounts they had received, and reouested the 
favor of his Excellency, to cause an inquiry to be made, wnether Mr. 
Andrews' labors were so fruitless among the Indians, and submitted it 
to his judgment to dismiss Mr. Andrews if they should be found so. 
The accounts transmitted hither were found true upon examination, 
and Mr. Andrews left that miserable race of men. 



118 



Humphrey's History of 



CHAPTER XII. 

A considerabh number of the inhabitants of Boston petition King 
Charles the Second, that a Church miyht be allowed in that City^ 
which is granted. Soon after the rise of this Society, several other 
totens build Churches, and desire Missionaries might be sent to 
them. The people of .ihode Island build a Church, and have a 
Missionary sent them. The people of Providence, Narrayansett, 
Newbury, Marblehead, Bristol, Stradford, desire Missionaries, and 
build Churches ; Missionaries are sent to each town, and the Church 
people increase. Missionaries sent to Fairfield and Braintree. A 
new Church is built at Boston ; Dr. Cutler appointed Minister. 
Two Schoolmasters supported. Twelve Churches built in this 
Government. 

1. A considerable number of the inhabitants of Boston petitioned 
King Charles II, about the year 1679, that a Church might be 
allowed in that City, for the exercise of religion according to the 
Church of England ; which was accordingly granted, and the Church 
called the King's Chapel: This is the first place where the Church of 
England worship was exercised in New England. The congregation 
increased very considerably, and His Majesty King William was there- 
fore pleased to settle a salary of one hundred pounds a year, for the 
support of an assistant to the Minister of that Church ; which Royal 
bounty is still continued. 

2. feut soon after the establishment of this Society, when the Rev- 
erend Mr. Muirson was sent Missionary to Rye in New York Govern- 
ment, the neighboring people in Connecticut Colony in New England 
became desirous of having the Church of England worship settled 
among them too. The people of Stradford, about sixty miles distant 
from Rye, were very zealous, and requested Mr. Muirson to visit them. 
Mr. Muirson resolved to make them a visit, and Colonel Heathcote, a 
worthy gentleman, (frequently mentioned in the foregoing sheets,) of a 
considerable interest in Westchester County, adjoining to Connecticut 
Colony, was pleased to honor him with his company in this progress; 
and aifterwards wrote the Society the following account of their re- 
ception there. " We found that Colony much as we expected, very 
ignorant of the constitution of our Church, and therefore enemies to it. 
The towns are furnished with Ministers, chiefly Independents, denying 
Baptism to the children c " all such as are not in full Communion with 
them ; there are many thousands in that Government unbaptized. The 
Min'sters were very uneasy at our coming among them, and abundance 
of pains were taken '.o terrify the people from hearing Mr. Muirson. 
But it availed nothing, for notwithstanding all their endeavors, we had 
a very great congregation, and indeed infinitely beyond expectation. 
The people were wonderfully surprised at the order of our Church, ex- 
pecting to have heard and seen some strange thing, by the accounts 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



110 



and representations of it that their teachers had given them. Mr. 
Muirson baptized about twenty-five, most grown people at Stradford." 
This was the first step that was made towards introducing the Church 
worship into this Colony. Mr. Muirson gave the same account of his 
journey, adding, that the people invited him to come again to them. 
Accordingly, in April, 1707, he visited them, and Colonel Heathcote 
was pleased to go again with him. They now found the people much 
more earnest to have the Church worship settled, and the Independents 
more incensed ; the Ministers and magistrates were remarkably indus- 
trious, going from house to house, busying themselves, and persuading 
the people from hearing Mr. Muirson, and threatening those with 

Sunishment and imprisonment who would go to hear him preach. 
Ir. Muirson describes their opposition in these words. " One of their 
magistrates, with some other officers, came to my lodgings, and in the 
hearing of Colonel Heathcote and a great many people, read a paper ; 
the meaning of it was, to let me know, th&t I had done an illegal 
thing, in coming among them to establish a new way of worship, and 
to forewarn me from preaching any more. And this he did by virtue 
of one of their laws, the words of which, as he expressed them, were 
these. Be it enacted, &c. ' That there shall be no Ministry or Church 
Administration entertained or attended by the inhabitants of any toum 
or plantation in this Colony, distinct and separate from, and in oppo- 
sition to, that which is openly and publicly observed and dispensed by 
the approved Minister of the place.^ Now, whatever interpretation the 
words of the said law may admit of, yet we are to regard the sense 
and force they put upon them ; which is plainly this, to exclude the 
Church their (Government, as appears by their proceedings with me. 
So that hereby they deny a liberty of conscience to the Church of 
England people, as well as to all others that are not of their opinion ; 
which being repugnant to the laws of England, is contrary to the 
grant of their charter. 

But these methods wliich the Independents used, were so far from 
hindering the people from resorting to the Church service, that still 
greater numbers came ; and other towns sent and invited Mr, Muirson 
to visit them. Particularly the people of Fairfield requested him to 
come, and he went to them. The Independents refused him and the 
people the use of the meeting-house, though on a week day. But a 
gentleman, the chief person in the town, invited them to his house, a 
great congregation met there, and he baptized a larjje number. Mr. 
Muirson made several journies up and down this Colony and was a 
kind of itinerant missionary. The Independents used all means to 
obstruct him ; Mr. Muirson wrote to the Society, with much concern, 
an account of the methods taken to hinder the people from hearing 
him. " The people were likewise threatened with imprisonment, and 
a forfeiture of five pound for coming to hear me. It would require 
more time than you would willingly bestow on these lines, to express 
how rigidly and severely they treat our people, by taking their estates 
by distress when they do not willingly pay to support their Ministers ; 



120 



Humphrey's History of 



and though every Churchman in that Colony pays his rate for the 
building and repairing their meetinghouses, yet thoy are so set against 

us, that they deny us tiie use of them though on week days. ^All 

the Churchmen in this Colony request, is, that they may not be 
oppressed and insulted over; that they may obtain a liberty of conscience, 
and call a Minister of their own; that they may be freed from paying 
to their ministers, and thereby be enabled to maintain their own ; thisia 
all these good men desire.** This hath been the grievance of the Church 
ofEngland people from the beginning, and continues so still. Mr.Muirson 
however continued his labors, and would in all probability have brought 
great numbers to entire conformity with the Church, but he died soon 
after in 1 709. Colonel Heathcote gave this character of him a little before 
he died. "He is truly very well qualified for the service, having a very 
happy way of preaching, and considering his years, wonderfully good at 
argument, and his conversation is without blemish." Notwithstanding 
his death, many considei%ble towns in New England were zealous to have 
Ministers of the Church of England ; parttculariy Marblehead, the 
second town in the whole country, Braintree, Newbury, Narragansett, 
and several others. ' 

8. The Church Wardens of Rhode Island wrote to the Bishop of Lon- 
don, and to the Society, in the year 1702, declaring their early zeal, 
that though they had not assembled themselves, to worship God after 
the manner of the Church ofEngland, above four years, they had built 
a handsome Church. The Society resolved to send a missionary 
hither, both on account of their being the first, and also a numerous 
people, settled on a flourishing island. The Reverend Mr. Honeyman 
was appointed in 1704. He discharged the duties of his mission with 
great diligence. Though the island was full of persons of many per- 
suasions, especially Quakers, the governor himself being such, yet by his 
prudent behavior lie gave ofi'ence to none, and gained many to the 
Church. He continued there till the year 1708, and then came to Eng- 
land upon his own private aflairs, but returned soon to his cure again. 
There were three little towns on the continent, Freetown, Tiverton, and 
Little Compton, which had requested a missionary of the Society ; Mr. 
Honeyman was directed to visit them by turns on week-days, till they 
could be supplied with a minister. Mr. Honeyman frequently crossed 
over to them, and preached to them in a meeting- house, which he ob- 
tained the use of, and which was commodiously situated in the center of 
three towns. He said, the people at first, though very ignorant and rude 
in religious matters, were yet very grave and attentive at divine worship. 
He performed this laborious duty several years. In the year 1712, a 
missionary was sent to these three towns. Mr. Honeyman began to 
have a little more leisure; but he was zealous to promote the work he 
had engaged in, and set up a lecture, and preached oncj a fortnight 
at Portsmouth, a town at the farthest end of the island, and soon found 
very great encouragement to continue it, not any reward, but an unex- 
pected and surprising large audience of people of many persuasions. 

About this time he represented also very earnestly to the Society, 



The Propagation Society, ^. 



131 



Society, 



the want of a missionary at a town called Providence, about thirty 
miles distant from Newport, a place very considerable for the number 
of its inhabitants. Through the want of instruction, the people were 
become quite rude, and void of all knowledge in religion ; yet they 
were of good and teachable disposition. Ue visited this place, and 
preached here to the greatest number of people, that he ever had togeth- 
er since he came to America. Ue writes thus : " There is great pros« 
pect of settling a Church here; and if the Society will send a raissionaiy 
to a people so much in want, and yet so desirous of receiving the Gos- 
pel, perhaps this might prove one of the greatest acts of charity they 
have even done yet." A little while after he writes thus : " I have 
preached there again, and the number of people is so increased, 
that no house there could hold them, so that I was obliged to preach 
in the open fields. The people are now going about to get subscrip- 
tions to build a church. If the Society knew the necessity there is of 
a missionary here, they would immediately send one. In the mean 
time, I shall give them all the assistance I can." The Society upon this 
letter, appointed in the next year (172S,) the Reverend Mr. Figot mis- 
sionary there. Besides the faithful discharge of his duty at his own sta- 
tion, Mr. Iloneyman hath been farther instrumental in gathering several 
congregations at Narragansett, Tiverton, Freetown, and at the above 
mentioned place. Providence. In the year 1724, accounts came, that 
he had baptized eighty within the two past years, of which nineteen 
were grown persons, three of them negroes, two Indians, and two mu- 
lattoes ; and there were properly belonging to his Church at Newport, 
above fifty communicants, who live in that place, exclusive of strangers. 
The Church people grew now too numerous to be accommodated with 
seats in the old church, and many more ofi^red to join themselves to 
the Church communion. Mr. Uoneyman proposed to the Church mem- 
bera, the building of a new church, and subscribed himself £80. The 
people heartily concurred ; and he soon after obtained a thousand 
pounds subscription for that purpose ; but it was estimated the build- 
mg would cost twice as much, in that country money. However, a 
sufficient sura was raised, and in the year 1726, the church was com- 
pleted, and Mr. Honeyman preached in it. The body of the church 
IS seventy feet long, and forty-six feet wide ; it hath two tiers of window^ 
is full of pews, and hath galleries all round to the east end. It is owned 
by the people there to be the most beautiful timber structure in Amer- 
ica. The old church is given the people of the neighboring town 
of Warwick, who had no church of their own. There are Qunkers and 
two sorts of Anabaptists in Newport, yet the members of the Church of 
England increase daily ; and though there are not four alive of the 
first promoters of the Church worship in this place, yet there is now 
above four times the number of all the rest. This last church is gener- 
ally full. Newport is the chief town in the island, is the place of resi- 
dence of the governor, is a good compact town; large enough to make 
a considerable village in England. Mr. Honeyman continues now mis- 
sionary here, and hath under his care also, Freetown, Tiverton, and Lit* 
tie Compton. 

16 



122 



Hupiphrey's History of 



4. Hnving just mentioned Providence, where Mr. Honeyman had gath- 
ered a congregation, and Mr. Pigot was appointed missionary, it may 
be proper to give next an account of the mission there. Tlie people, as 
described above, were negligent of all religion till about the year 1722 ; 
the very best were such as called themselves Baptists, or Quakers, 
but it was feared many were Gortonians or deists. This township is 
20 miles square, and the present number of inhabitants is about 4000. 
Out of all these, there was a small number, who in the year 1722, seri- 
ously reflecting on that irreligious state wherein they lived, resolved 
to endeavor to build a church, get a minister, and to live like Christ- 
ians. They began to gather contributions among themselves ; they 
got £250 they solicited their friends about them ; they got £200 from 
Rhode Island, £100 from Boston, and £20 from other places: with 
this sum, and about £200 more, which they borrowed, they raised on 
St. Barnabas day, 1722, a timber building for a church, being sixty- 
two feet in length, forty-onein breadth, and twenty-six high. The chief 
contributor was Colonel Joseph Whittle, who gave £100. The Rev- 
erend Mr. Honeyman gave £10 and Mr. Macksparran, another of the 
Society's missionaries, gave £5. The people live dispersed over this large 
township; they are industrious, employed chiefly in husbandry, and 
handy-crafts, though Vtlry lately they have begun to enter upon foreign 
trade and navigation. Mr. Pigot, upon his first coming here had not 
much above one hundred attending Divine worship ; however, the num- 
bers increased, and he baptized in less than two years six grown persons, 
andthe communicants were seventeen. And in the year 1727, he bap- 
tized eleven children, three grown persons, and the communicants were 
forty-four. The reader remarks this mission is but just begun, and the 
Church members are daily increasing. 

5. The people of Narragansett county made application to the Bishop 
of London, about the year 1707, for a missionary, and built a church 
soon after by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants. It is a 
timber building, and commodiously situated for those who generally 
attend Divine service. It is distant from Providence, the nearest church, 
twenty-seven miles. This county is above thirty miles long, and between 
twelve and thirteen broad. There are near four thousand inhabitants, 
including about two hundred negroes. Their business is husbandry, 
their farms are large, so that the farmers seem rather grasiers. They 
live ai great distances from each other, and improve their lands in breed- 
ing horses, cattle, and sheep, and carry the greatest supply of provisions 
to Boston market. 

The people who appeared at first desirous of the Church of England 
worship, were but few, but they were very earnest for it. In the year 
1717, the Society appointed the Reverend Mr. Guy to that place; he 
arrived there soon after, and entered upon his mission with much zeal. 
The members of the Church of England received him with many tokens 
of joy. They presently provided him with a convenient house, and 
because it was at some distance from the church, they presented him 
with a horse ; and many other ways showed him marks of their &• 



The Propagation Society, ^. 



123 



r 



vor. He was very well respected by the people, and several who 
lived regardless of all religion before he came, began to be constant at- 
tendants at Divine Worship. He resided at Narragansett, (otherwise 
called Kingston,) and visited by turns the people of Freetown, Tiverton, 
and Little Corapton, and some other places. This mission was very la- 
borious, the places far distant, and the weather here changing suddenly 
into severe extremes ; Mr. Guy contracted indispositions, and found him- 
self not able to bear the fatigue, and was therefore, upon his request, re- 
moved to South Carolina in 1Y19. The Rev. Mr. Honeyman, in the 
vacancy of this Church, visited the people at times, and kept them 
together. The Eteverend Mr. Macksparran was appointed missionary 
there in 1*720. In the following year, he acquainted the Society, that 
his congregation, though small at first, consisted then of about one 
hundred and sixty, with twelve Indian and black servants ; that he 
bad baptized thirty persons, six of them of a grown age, between 
eighteen and fifty, the communicants were but twelve. But the next 
year, the members of the Church of England increased to two hundred 
and sixty, and he baptized ten grown persons, and in the following year 
fifteen grown persons desired and received Baptism, and all the Church 
people, young and old, amounted to three hundred. Mr. Macksparran 
continues now in this mission. 

6. Newbury Church was built in the year 1711. It is a timber 
building, fifty feet long, and thirty broad. The Reverend Mr. Lampton 
was the first sent missionary here, but he staid not long, having contract- 
ed a bad state of health. In the year 1*715, the Reverend Mr. Lucaa 
was sent thither. His congregation was but small at first, the people 
having lived long in a disuse of the sacraments, they still continued 
negligent of them. Mr. Lucas not only by public discourses advised 
them, but also visited them, and used his best endeavors in private, to 
convince them of the usefulness and benefit of both those ordinances. 
He used also to go to Kittery, a neighboring place, and preach there ; 
he had a large congregation several times, near four hundred persons, 
who expressed a mighty desire to be instructed in the principles of the 
Church of England. He baptized here many children, and seven grown 
persons, one of which was fifty, the other sixty years old. Mr. Lucas 
died soon after. In the year 1720, the Reverend Mr. Matthias Plant 
was appoiilted missionary. He was received with much favor and 
civility by the people of the Church of England. He began to dis- 
charge his ministerial office with success, many people showed a great 
earnestness for the public worship, and more continually were added 
to them. They contributed their usual rates very frankly to Mr. Plant, 
and he was so sensible of their favor in many respects, he makes this 
grateful acknowledgment of it to the Society : " I find both my people, 
and others of the inhabitants, very civil, and indeed kind to me, several 
not belonging to my church, contributing something to me ; and though . 
my place is reckoned the smallest, I must confess, that the love I have 
for the people, and the truly good will, and extraordinary civility and 
kindness I receive from them, makes me to esteem my place as inferior 



134 



Humphrey's History of 



tf^none." Mr. Plant continues now in this mission ; hit congregation 
now amounts to near two hundred. Some of his hearers come from 
towns four, five, or six miles distant; and their number is daily in* 
creasing. 

7. Marblehead is a seaport, the second town in all New England, 
very considerable for its number of inliabitants, for its commerce, and 
especially for the fishery can-ied on there. A great number of these 
people were desirous to have the Church of England service settled 
there. In the year 1 707, they made subscriptions for building a Church, 
amounting to x4 1 6. They wrote letters to the Bishop of London, and to 
the Society, acquainting them with their desires of having a minister of 
the Church of England, and declaring their intentions of building a 
church. A handsome church was soon after built, and the Reverend 
Mr. Shaw was sent missionary there, but he did not continue long. He 
wrote word, he had fallen into many indispositions, by the change of 
climate, and the severity of the seasons sometimes there, and he removed. 
The Keverend Mr. David Mossom was settled there in 1710. He be- 
gan his mission with much diligence ; the number of people attending 
divine worship was but small at first. However, many more conformeid 
daily, and in about two years, the number of communicants were doub- 
led, thirteen grown persons had been baptized, and near seventy infants. 
The Church at Newbury being about this time vacant by the death of 
Mr. Lucas, Mr. Mossom visited that people also upon their earnest re- 
quest, preached and administered the sacrament to a congregation of 
above one hundred persons. He proceeded with great diligence in all 
parts of his duty. In the three following years, he persuaded nine grown 
persons to receive baptism, and the number of communicants in Mar- 
blehead, and from the neighboring towns, increased to about fifty. 
In the year 1725, he acquainted the Society, that in the foregoing year, 
he had received into the Church five grown persons, two men and three 
women, and that several other grown persons were preparing for bap- 
tism. He had also baptized two negroes, a man about twenty-five 
years old, and a girl about twelve ; and that a whole family in Salem, 
a neighboring town, had conformed to the Church ; so that upon the 
whole his congregation increased considerably. Mr. Mossom desired 
to be removed on account of some of his family affairs, and Mr. Pigot 
was removed from Providence to this place. He hath acquainted the 
Society, that since his appointment here, the Church bath considerably 
increased, he had baptized twenty -three grown persons, a great many 
had joined in communion, and he had reduced many from a disorderly 
and loose, to a more strict anr* a gi.'.ar behavior, and by his instructing 
the youth in the principles of religion, and the doctrines of the Church, 
he had gathered a large number of catechumens. Mr. Pigot continues 
now here. 

8. The chief inhabitants of Bristol, in the year 1720, wrote very ear- 
nest letters to the Bishop of London and to the Society, for a minister 
of the Church of England, and promised to build a church. Before they 
had an answer from the Society, they proceeded to get contributions to 



The Propagation Society, 4^. 



136 



in- 



build one. Colonel Mackintosh gave the ground the church stands 
upon, and £200. Several gentlemen, members of the Church at Bosfbn, 
gave £100, other gentlemen at Newport on Rhode Island, gave £100, 
the neighboring towns to Bristol gave a small sum, and the remaining 
sum, amounting to near £1000, was contributed by the people of Bris- 
tol. This place is very proper for a chu rch, Bristol being the county town, 
and situated *n the centre of six others, so that the inhabitants of those 
may resort hither to divine worship. The Reverend Mr. Orem'was sent 
missionary here in 1722. When he arrived here, he found the outside 
of tiie church and the steeple only finished. The people received him 
with great kindness, and there seemed to be a general diHposition in 
the inhubitants, to have the Church of England worship established here. 
Though the church was not floored, nor the walls plastered, the people 
were zealous to have Divine service performed in it ; which was done, 
and forms and benches were laid in on Saturday night for the auditory; 
and a large congregation, between two and three hundred persons, came 
there ; not all inhabitants of Bristol, but a great many from Swansey, 
Tiverton, and other neighboring towns. In the mean time, workmen 
were employed continually upon the church. Mr. Orem soon after ac- 
quainted the Society that it was finished, being a handsome timber build- 
ing sixty feet lonc^, and forty broad, that the inhabitants had spared 
no pains in carrying on the work, and had expended above £1400 that 
country money, in completing it ; that there was a very numerous as- 
sembly that attended divine worship every Lord's day, and joined in 
the service with the greatest gravity and decency imaginable, many of 
which, before his coming, were entire strangers to the Liturgy of the 
Church of England. Mr. Orem gained the esteem and affection of the 
people very much, and proceeded in his mission with success. But 
about a year after, the Governor of New York, who was acquainted 
with his merit, invited him to come to New York, and offered him a 
commission of chaplain to the King's forces there, which Mr. Orem ac- 
cepted of. The Society would not let this worthy people, who had ex- 
pressed so hearty an affection for the Church of England, want a jnin- 
ister. The Reverend Mr. Usher was appointed missionary there in the 
year following. He hath begun his mission with success, much respect- 
ed by his parishioners, and very diligent in his ministeiial o£Sce. Eleven 
grown persons have been received into the Church by baptism, and the 
communicants are increased. lie writes, " There is good reason to ex- 
pect a numerous congregation here in time ; the people, though at first 
they were not enough acquainted with the doctrines of the Church, yet 
since they have had an opportunity of being better instructed, they have, 
by God's blessing, heartily embraced her communion, and seem to be sted- 
fastly grounded in her faith." The town or chief body of people, living 
near together, extends about a mile in length, and a quarter in breadth. 
The farmers live at a greater distance, some three or four miles off. A 
church here seems very necessary, for the very next church is thirteen 
miles distant, and it would be very difficult to go there, especially for 
the young and the old, because of a troublesome ferry which must be 



136 



Humphrey's History of 



crossed, and of the deep snows which often fall in the winter times in 
thole parts, aad render all traveling exceeding difficult. Mr. Usher 
continues now missionary here. 

9. The people of Stratford in Connecticut colony, about the year 
1708, expressed an earnest desire of having the Church of England 
worship settled among then. I mentioned a little above, that Mr. 
Muirson and Colonel Ueathcote visited this town in 1 706, and they 
both wrote to the Society very much in favor of this people, desiring a 
missionary might be sent them. Robert Hunter, Esq., the Governor 
of New York, wrote thus concerning them in 1711 : " When I was at 
Connecticut, those of our communion at the Church of Stratford, came 
to me in a body, and then, as they have since by letter, begged my in- 
tercession with the venerable Society and the Right Reverend the Lord 
Bishop of London for a missionary ; they appeared very much in ear- 
nest, and are the best set of men I met with in that country." The 
Society have had many other advantageous representations of them 
from their missionaries and others. However the Society could not send 
a missionary here till the year 1722, so much were they engaged in 
supplying other places. The Reverend Mr. Pigot was sent missionary 
here, and so heartily were the people inclined to the Church of Eng- 
land, that the disappointment of having no missionary for near twenty 
years, did not make them change their well-grounded judgment. They 
received Mr. Pigot with all kindness, and immediately sat about buila- 
ing a place for public worship. Accordingly Christ's Church in Strat- 
ford was founded in 1723, and the building carried on and completed, 
partly at the charge of the Church of England members there, partly 
by the liberal contributions of pious gentlemen of the neighboring 
provinces, together with the bounty of some travelers, who occasionally 
passing by contributed. It is a timber building, small, but neat, forty- 
five feet and a half long, and thirty broad, and twenty up to the roof. 

The first people who strove to have the Church worship settled here, 
were about fifteen families, most tradesmen, some husbandmen, who had 
been, born and bred in England, and came and settled here. They, by 
their discourses about the Church service, first turning their neighbors' 
thoughts this way. When Mr. Pigot first came here, he had one 
hundred and fifty hearers, and twenty communicants, and soon after 
thirty ; he was very diligent in his mission, and extended his labors to 
several neighboring towns. He preached at times at Fairfield, which 
was eight miles distant from his abode, at Newton, which is twenty 
miles otf, and at Ripton, at the same distance, and administered both 
sacraments at each place. In eighteen months of his continuance here, 
he brought over many to the Church, the communicants increased to 
seventy- nine, he baptized fifty -seven children, and six grown persons. 
He desired, upon the account of some necessary family concerns, to be 
removed to Providence, and was so. The Rev. Mr. Johnson was 
appointed to succeed him in 1723. He was one of those three gentle- 
men, who left the Independent persuasion, and came to England for 
Episcopal Ordination in 1722, of whom more will be said a little lower. 



The Propagation Society, ^c. 



127 



He was known to, and much esteemed by the people at Stratford. He 
sat about the duties of bia ministry with diligence, his congregation 
daily increased. In the year 1725, the number of communicants in 
Stratford, and from the neighboring towns, rose up to near one hundred ; 
about thirty of which had been persuaded to a conformity by Mr. John- 
son ; and in the year 1727, they increased to one hundred and fifty ; a 
great increase in five years' time, from there being few or none commu- 
nicants in this place. 

It was very necessary to have a church built at Stratford. That 
township is ten miles square, and there was no church westward, with- 
in forty miles, (except lately one at Fairfield, which is eight miles ofii) 
none eastward, within one hundred miles, and there is no church at all, 
northward. Stratford lies upon the sea-coast, and directly over against 
it to the southward, lies Brookhaven, upon Long Island, about twenty 
miles distant from Stratford. If there were no Missionary here, a very 

freat body of people would be destitute of the means of public worship, 
he towns in this country lie thick, scarce any at above ten miles distant, 
some not five miles off" each other. Some of these towns also, have 
several little villages belonging to them. Most of the towns consist of 
two, three, or four hundred families. Though scarce any of them live 
contiguous, yet the main body of the people of a town, live in near 
neighborhooids. The roads are generally well cleared, and much used. 
It is a fruitful and thriving country. Mr. Johnson continues now in this 
mission. 

10. The Rev. Mr. Caner hath been appointed lately Missionary to 
Fairfield in Connecticut; the Society have received accounts from him, 
that the people of the Church Communion increase considerably, and 
that he hath a prospect of good success in his mission. The Rev. Mr. 
Miller was also appointed Missionary at Braintree, about the same time ; 
no particular accounts of his labors have yet been transmitted from him. 

11. The members of the Church Communion at Boston, the capital 
of this country, and where the Church service was first settled, were 
now very much increased; and in the year 1722, agreed to build 
another church at Boston. The Rev. Mr. Miles, Minister of the King's 
Chapel there, having observed his church was much too small, called 
his congregation together, and represented the matter to them. They 
were all unanimous of opinion, the present church was not sufficient, 
and that it was necessary to build another. They presently chose a 
committee to take in subscriptions, for the carrying on of this work. A 
handsome church hath been since built, and Mr. Cutler appointed 
Missionary there. 

Mr. Cutler was bred in the Independent way, became a noted preach- 
er, and was afterwards advanced to be President of Yale College in 
New England ; a station of credit and profit. He discharged the duties 
of his place with reputation to himself, and to the public satisfaction. 
He continued several years in this post ; but began, upon more mature 
considering, to think it his duty to leave the Independents, and join in 
eommunion with the Church of England. Several other Independent 



138 



Humphrey's History of 



teachers, men of allowed characters for virtue and learning, were of the 
same sentiments. Particularly Mr Brown, Tutor in Yale College, Mr. 
Johnson and Mr. Wetmore. Mr. Cutler, Mr. Urown, and Mr. Johnson, 
resolved to conform to the Church of England, though at the loss of 
the preferment they had in the Independent way ; and, accordingly, in 
the year 1722, at a public Commencement at Yale College, in New 
Haven, they declared their conformity to the Church of England, laid 
down their preferments, and came to England for Episcopal Orders. 

The new church at Boston was now building, and all the memhera 
of the Church of England had a just value for these gentlemen's integ* 
rity ; they thought Mr. Cutler had sacrificed a verv valuable interest, 
to a ^ood conscience, and agreed to choose him mmister of their new 
church, when it should be built. They wrote very earnest letters to 
the Bishop of London, and to th: Society, requesting their favor to 
Mr. Cutler, and praying the Bishop of London to license him to the 
new church at Boston. The Society at this time knew nothing of Mr. 
Cutler, or the other gentlemen, but letters came from the members of 
the church at Newport, and several of the Missionaries, giving an 
account of their leaving the Independents. They all three received 
Holy Orders, but Mr. Brown died soon after ; Mr. Cutler and Mr. John- 
son, by their behavior here, appeared to deserve the character they 
brought from abroad. While they were in England, they visited our 
Universities, and were received by the Vice-Chancellor of each, and the 
heads of houses, with peculiar marks of regard and esteem. Mr. Cut- 
ler, the elder gentleman, had the Degree of Doctor in Divinity confer- 
red upon him, and Mr. Johnson, that of Master of Arts, by both Uni- 
versities. 

Dr. Cutler soon after went over to New England to his church at 
Boston. The building was finished in a little above a year. It is a 
handsome brick church, seventy feet long, and fifty wide, thirty-five 
high, the walls two feet and an half thick ; the steeple's area is twenty- 
four feet square. As soon as it was fitted to have Divine service per- 
formed in it, a numerous congregation of people, both from Boston, 
and the neighboring towns, attended the public worship there, particu- 
larly from Charlestown, which is separated from Boston by a consider- 
able river. At the opening of this church, the usual audience was 
about four hundred persons, but they increased continually, and now 
amount to near eight hundred commonly. The members of this 
church have, in many respects, approved themselves a worthy people, 
very devout in the public worship, and conscientious in their lives and 
actions ; their children are brought regularly to baptism, and the com- 
municants have lately amounted to about eighty. Dr. Cutler hath also 
instructed several grown persons in the duty and benefit of baptism, 
and administered it to them. lie continues now in this mission. 

The Society have also maintained a schoolmaster for several years at 
Boston, to teach the poor children to read, write, and cypher, and have 
lately appointed Mr. Delpech to be schoolmaster at Narragansett 
They have also by their Missionaries distributed above eleven thousand 



The Propagation Society, ^ 



1S9 



volumes of books, besides large numbers of small tracts, among the 
poorer people. The members of our communion have expressied a 
nearly zeal for it, and have, by voluntary contributions, built twelve 
churches in this Government. 



was 
now 
this 

bople, 
and 

Icom- 
also 

btism. 



CHAPTER Xni. 

The Society's method of maiMging this Trust. Their more special 
Rules and Orders^ relating to themselves and to their Officers, 

After the foregoing relation of the endeavors of the Society to prop- 
agate the Christian religion by their missionaries abroad, there re- 
mains only one thing more to be done ; namely, to give the reader an 
account of the Society's manner of transacting business at home. This 
is a piece of justice due to the public : they ought to have an authentic 
and satisfactory account, how so great a trust is managed ; through 
whose hands, and after what manner, the administration of this charity 
passes ; how open and unsuspicious the method of doing business is ; 
and how disinterested the persons are, who have the direction of it. 
The persons are, the Bishops of England, several eminent gentlemen 
and merchants, and many of the clergy. They are all so far from hav- 
ing any private interest in it, that they are the only certain benefactors 
to it ; for no one is admitted to be a member, wno hath not been a 
benefactor, or who doth not become a contributor of an annual sum, 
and their subscriptions are the chief certain fund. At every meeting 
of the Society, all the members are summoned to attend ; and the 
manner of transacting all business is, by a majority of votes ; but upon 
any debate arising, the question is decided by balloting. The Society 
have made several by-laws or rules for their own conduct, that nothing 
might be done without mature deliberation, to prevent any matter of 
weight being passed by themselves suddenly, and upon surprise. I 
shall give the reader their most material rules in their own words. 

The principal rules in the charter relating to the management of this 
trust are these : 

That the Society meet upon the third Friday in February yearly, 
between the hours of eight and twelve in the morning ; and they, or 
the major part of them that shall then be present, shall choose one Pre- 
sident, one or more Vice-Presidents, one or more Treasurers, two or 
more Auditors, one Secretary, and other Officers for the year ensuing, 
who shall respectively take an oath for the due execution of their re- 
spective offices. 

That if any officer die, or be removed, the President, or one of the 
Vice-Presidents, may summon the members to meet at the usual place 
of the annual meeting of the Society, and choose another in his place. 

That the Society meet on the third Friday in every month, and 
oftener if occasion requires, to transact the business of the Society, and 
may at any such meeting elect persons for members. 

17 



180 



Humphrey** History of 



That no act of tho Society be valid, unless the President, or one of 
the Vice-Proaidents, and seven other members, be present. 

That at any meeting on the third Friday in tlie months of November, 
February, May, and August, yearly, and at no other meetings, the So- 
ciety, or the major part then present, may make by-laws, and execute 
leases. 

That the Society may depute such persons as they shall think fit, to 
take subscriptions, and collect monies ciontributed for the purposes of 
the Society. 

That the Society shall yearly give an account in writing, to the 
Chancellor, or keeper of the groat Seal, the Chief Justices of the King's 
Bench and Common Pleas, or any two of them, of all the monies re- 
ceived and laid out, and of the management of the charities. 

The principal by-laws or rules made by the Society ar^ these. 

That the form of the oath to be tendered to all the officers of the Society, be' 
Ibre they be admitted into their respective <office8, be as follows : 

I, A. B. do swear that I will fnithfull j and duly execute the Office of 

of the Society for the Propagation of the Oospel in Foreign Parts, according to 
the best of my judgment. So help me Ood. 

That there be a sermon preached before the Society on the third Friday in 
every February, and that the Preacher and place be appointed by the President. 

That no sum or sums of money exceeiling ten pounax, (excepting yearly sala- 
ries to Missionaries, (be.) be disposed uf at any meeting, unless fourteen members 
of the Society be present. 

That proper and significant heads of the several orders and resolutions of the 
Society, be taken by tne Secretary. 

That the minutes of the last day, and the minutes of the intermediate Oom- 
mittees be read before the Society eaters upon new business. 

That the Secretary do from time to time, lay before the Lord Archbishop 
of Canterbury, and Lord Bishop of London, copies of the minutes taken at the 
meetings of the Society. 

That a Committee of the Society be appointed to receive proposals that may be 
offered to them, for the promoting the designs of the Society, and to prepare 
matters for the consideration of the Society. 

That such mnmbers of the Society as cumo, or any three of them, be the said 
Committee : That the said Committee meet at the Secretary's house in Warwick- 
Court, the Monday immediately preceding the Qeneral Meeting (and oftener if 
necessary) at four in the afternoon. 

That no motion for money or books be originally mada or received at the 
Committee. 

That the President or Standing Committee, when five are present, may have 
power to appoint a meeting of the Society on extraordinary occasions. 

That no person be admitted a member of the Society, till he be proposed at 
three general meetings. 

That elections of members, and all other matters that are put to the question 
be determined by balloting. 

That no persons be admitted members of the Society, unless they consent to 
subscribe something annually for promoting the designs of the Society, except 
Buch as have been benefactors. 

That when any person is proposed for a member of the Society, the name of 
the person that proposed him, be entered in the journal at the same time. 

Tnat at every election of Auditors, one of the former year be always chosen, as 
an Auditor for the year ensuing. 



The Propagation Society, ^'C. 



131 



Tliat the account* of the Society bo audited vearly in January. 

That every audit be fairly entered into a book kept for (hat purpoae by the 
Secretary, and examined and subucribed by the renpective Auditor*. 

That the Auditors be Kummoned within a month after every audit, to examine 
the audit after it in entered into tite book of Audits, and to sign the same. 

I'liat tlie Auditors do vearly direct un account to be prepared of all monies ra> 
oeived and laid out, and of the nianni^enK'nt and di!<p<>i>ition thereof; and see 
that copies of such account be yearly fjivcn, according to their Charter. And that 
such account bo entered into a book to be kept for that purpotte. 

That the Treasurer, or Treasurers, shall be trusted with tliu monies of the So- 
eiety, upon his or their giving such security as the Society shall approve. 

lliat the Auditors see the Treasurer seal his bond. 

That the Auditors in their reports, enter the names of all such ■ubscribert, aa 
have not completed their payments to the Quarterdav before the audit; and 
that the particulars of the said report do always lie on the table. 

That all benefactions and entrance money be registered in a book kept for 
that purpose ; and that at every monthly meeting of the Societv, the Treasurer, 
if present, Hhall charge himself under his hand, in the same book, with all such 
receipts: which book, at every audit shall be laid before the Auditors. 

That the Treasurer do always in his accounts mention the date of the order 
upon which he acts. , 

That us soon as the Treasurer's accounts aro audited, the several receipts and 
vouchers of disbursements for the particular sums in the said audited acoouuta^ 
be delivered up by the Treasurer, to be kept by the Society. 

That the state of the Society's affairs with regard to their expenses and pre* 
sent cosh, be laid before the Society at every quarterly meeting. 

That the Secretary be always present at the audit. 

That the Secretary keep a Register of all the books allowed to Missionariea 
or other persons; in which the Mi^Ksionary's or other person's name, place of 
abode, and the time when he received the said books, are to be entered ; except- 
ing the Society's Anniversary Sermons, and other small tracts and papers which 
are to be given away abroad. 

That all letters from Missionaries or others, of business that concerns the So- 
ciety, be directed to the Secretary of the Society. 

'That the Secretary do prepare an abstract of the most material transactions of 
every year, which, after it hath been approved of by the Society, shall be pub- 
lisbed at the end of the Anniversary Sermon. 

That there be but one Messenger, and that he be obliged to give sufficient 
security for the monies he shall receive on the Society's account, within one 
month at fartliest after his election into the office. 

That the Messenger give receipts in his own name, for the monies he shall re* 
ceive from the members ; and that ho pay the said monies to the Treasurer, 
taking his receipt for the same, which shall be a sufficient discharge. 

That the Messenger attend the Secretary every Monday, Wednesday and 
Friday, and at such other times as the business of the Society shall require, and 
the Secretary shall appoint 






THE CONCLUSION. 

The three principal articles proposed to be treated of here, being 
now gone through ; namely, the occasion for establishing this Society, 
the success of the Missionaries abroad, and the management of this 
trust at home, may we not upon the whole justly think there hath 
appeared a peculiar hand of Providence in gui<ling and prospering this 
good work ; when we reflect, that this Society hath, by the help of a 



132 



Humphrey's History 



mere providential income, arising from unforeseen donations and lega- 
cies, together with the subscriptions of their own members, been able to 
carry on a work which seems to require a certain public revenue for its 
support The success of the Society's labors hath exceeded their first 
hopes. The Church of England hath been by law established in some 
Colonies; in others, numerous congregations of people have been 
gathered, who have had the benefit of the administration of God's 
Word and Sacraments ; above sixty churches have been built, a very 
great body of people have been instructed ; many schools have been 
opened for the training up of children and youth in the knowledge of 
the Christian Faith, and with convenient learning ; and above eight 
thousand volumes of books, besides above one hundred thousand small 
tracts, of devotion and instruction, have been dispersed among the in- 
habitants. 

In justice and honor to the Colonies it must be remarked here, how 
much they deserved this help of their countrymen. Great numbers of 
the most worthy persons in the richer Colonies showed a very earnest 
and sincere zeal to have the Church of England settled among them ; 
nay, in some Colonies, during their unsettled state, many poor inhabit- 
ants, who had scarce built themselves houses, contributed towards 
building churches. They have been liberal in their poverty; and 
that Providence which hath in so early a season disposed them to be a 
religious people, seems by that to design them hereafter to be a great 
and flourishing people. 

The propagation of the Gospel, the spreading of the Christian Faith, 
and settling of the Church of England in the Colonies, containing now 
a great body of people, is plainly a work of so great excellency, it needs 
no words to recommend it to a Christian. Especially if it be farther 
considered, that the numerous posterity of the present inhabitants will 
derive their knowledge of the true Christian Faith, from the labors of 
this Society ; when those vast tracts in America, now waste deserts and 
wildernesses, may, ages hereafter, become cultivated and fruitful coun- 
tries, covered with cities and towns, and filled with nations of Chris- 
tians. 

In gratitude to the memory of the founder of this Society, King 
William the III, it may not be improper to conclude this treatise, with 
remarking to the reader, the erecting of this corporation, was among 
the last public actions of his heroic life. After having rescued the 
Protestant religion in Europe, and saved the Church of England here, 
he did by this last act, as it were, bequeath it to his American sub- 
jects, as the most valuable legacy, and greatest blessing. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER L 
The occasions of the first rise of this Society, 

CHAPTER IL 

Enquiries made into the Religious state of the Colonies. The particular state 
of each Colony described, 

CHAPTER m. 

The people in the Colonies very desirous of Ministers of the Church of Eng- 
land: Requests from congregations of people in each Colony, 

CHAPTER IV. 



16 



24 



The Testimonials required by the Society from the missionaries they send 
abroad. The rules they give them for their conduct The Reverend Mi-. 
Keith and Mr. Talbot sent traveling preachers through several Colonies, 81 

CHAPTER V. 

Missionaries sent to South Carolina ; the places to which they were appointed ; 
their labors and success. A war is raised by the Yammosees and other 
Indians, against the English. The tranquillity of this province happily 
restored: Thirteen churches and four chapels of ease built; salaries 
settled on the clergy; schools opened, • - • - • - 36 



CHAPTER VI. 

Missionaries sent to North Carolina. The Reverend Mr. Blair sent mission- 
ary, undergoes great hardships, returns to England. Other missionaries 
sent thither ; they meet with many difficulties, return to England. The 
Tuscarora Indians form a conspiracy against the English ; ravage the Colo- 
ny ; are at length defeated. Mr. Newnam sent missionary, takes great 
pains in his mission ; dies, 

CHAPTER VII. 

Pennsylvania settled at first by Swedes and Dutch ; a very considerable 
number of Quakers go over from England thither. The Reverend Mr. 



64 



; 



134 



CONTENTS. 



Evans sent to Philadelphia, by Bishop Gompton. A very large ccngrega* 
tion at Philadelphia. Several missionaries sent to Pennsylvania. Their 
labors and success. Fifteen churches built in this Colony by voluntary 
contributions. No Salaries settled on the ministers, but the people con- 
tribute liberally towards their support, 



60 



CHAPTER VIII. 

lifissionaries sent to New Jersey. Several congregations are gathered. 
The missionaries' labors. The people become very zealous. Seven con- 
venient churches built, by voluntary contributions, .... 



12 



CHAPTER IX. 

An Act passed in the year 1698, for settling and maintaining a ministry in 
New York Oovemment. Churches directed to be built in 1698. A 
church built in the city of New York. Missionaries sent to the Colony, to 
Westchester county, to Albany, to Statten Island, to Long Island; their 
labors. Schoolmasters supported here. Ten churches built; several do- 
nations made to them, 



19 



CHAPTER X. 

The Society very earnest to promote the instruction of the Negroes. The 
Negroes an exceeding great number of persons. The Society direct all 
their missionaries to give their best assistance. The Society settle a school 
at New York city for instructing the Negroes. Mr. Neau, catechist there, 
very industrious, instructs many. The Negroes conspire to destroy the 
English. The plot proves unsuccessful, many of the Negroes taken and 
executed. The school is again encouraged for converting the Negroes. Mr. 
Neau dies. The Reverend Mr. Colgan appointed catechist, - 



90 



An Address to serious Christians among ourselves, to assist the Society for 
propagating the gospel, in carrying on the work of instructing the Negroes 
in our plantations abroad, 95 

LETTER I 

The Bishop of London's letter to the Masters and Mistresses of families in 
the English plantations abroad ; exhorting them to encourage and promote 
the instruction of their Negroes in the Chistian Faith, - • - 99 

LETTER IL 

The Bishop of London's letter to the missionaries in the English plantations ; 
exhorting them to give their assistance towards the instruction of the Ne- 
groes of their several parishes, in the Christian Faith, ■ ■ . . 104 



CONTEKTS. 



180 



CHAPTER XL 

The Iroquois border on New York and New England. The genius of the 
Nortliem Indians, and the condition of their countries. The Earl of Bella- 
mont, Governor of New Yorlc, represents the wants of the missionaries for 
instructing the Iroquois. An order of the Queen and Council for their in- 
struction. The Society send the Reverend Mr. Thoroughgood Moor Mission- 
ary to them. His labors ; they prove fruitless ; he embarks for England ; 
he and all the ship's crew are lost at sea. Four Sachems or Indian Kings 
arrive in England ; they desire a missionary to instruct them and their 
people. They return home. Mr. Andrews is sent missionary to the Mo- 
hocks. A fort is built among them. They refuse to let their children learn 
English. Some chapters of the Bible, and part of our Common Prayer 
translated into the Indian Iroquois language ; some few Indians are taught. 
The Mohocks will not send their children to school ; refuse to come to be 
instructed. Mr Andrews represents alLhis labors prove useless. Leaves 
this mission, 



105 



CHAPTER XIL 

A considerable number of the inhabitants of Boston petitioned King Charles 
the Second that a Church might beallowed in that city, which is granted. 
Soon after the rise of this Society, several other towns built churches, and 
desire missionaries might be sent to them. The people of Rhode Island 
built a church and have a missionary sent them. The people of Providence, 
Narragansett, Newbury, Marblehead, Bristol, Stratford, desire mission- 
aries, and build churches ; missionaries are sent to each town, and the 
Church people increase. Missionaries sent to Fairfield and Braintreo. A 
new church is built at Boston. Dr. Cutler appointed minister. Two 
schoolmasters supported. Twelve churches built in this government, - 118 

CHAPTER XIIL 

The Society's method of managing this trust. Their more special rules and 
orders, relating to themselves and to their officers, .... 129 



